Review of medical cards outsourced to German company.

SafeSurfer · 15-05-2014 12:12AM #1

Arcaro finance have been engaged by the HSE to perform reviews of medical cards as it seeks to make savings in the health budget. A HSE worker has revealed that staff are " barely trained with no background in social care, do not work for the HSE, have no Garda clearance and are on minimum wage".

The outsourcing and inexperience of staff has been blamed on one mother being asked if her son still had Down's syndrome.

The revelations came during a motion calling on the government to reverse cuts to discretionary medical cards. The motion was defeated by the government majority.

drdeadlift · 15-05-2014 12:14AM

Im glad i dont need a medical card...touch wood.

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller · 15-05-2014 12:15AM

Silence!

dreamers75 · 15-05-2014 12:19AM

Why did an irish company lose the tender for this?

Tail Docker · 15-05-2014 12:21AM

dreamers75 wrote: »

Why did an irish company lose the tender for this?

EU tender rules blah blah

- tldr, because we(i.e the state) think foreign companies are better at everything, even though they usually aren't.

Toots · 15-05-2014 12:22AM

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Arcaro finance have been engaged by the HSE to perform reviews of medical cards as it seeks to make savings in the health budget. A HSE worker has revealed that staff are " barely trained with no background in social care, do not work for the HSE, have no Garda clearance and are on minimum wage".

The outsourcing and inexperience of staff has been blamed on one mother being asked if her son still had Down's syndrome.

The revelations came during a motion calling on the government to reverse cuts to discretionary medical cards. The motion was defeated by the government majority.

That's nothing new I'm afraid. My little sister has Down Syndrome and every couple of years they send out a massive questionnaire for my mum to fill in about her disability so they can re-assess her medical card. Last time it happened my mum flipped the lid and rang the HSE to ask why they keep sending out the form cos it's not like my sister is going to wake up one morning and magically not have Down Syndrome anymore!

You'd think with disabilities like that they wouldn't bother sending out the review forms, especially when you think of the cost of sending the forms, plus the cost of man-hours to process them, and field the angry phone calls from frustrated card holders.

Specialun · 15-05-2014 12:23AM

Ze germans take all our fun

Banjo String · 15-05-2014 12:24AM

Quite apt news on the day that is in it.

Tonight, Fine Gael and Labour Voted against a SF motion to restore Medical cards to the very sick, the terminally ill, and people (including small children) With Disabilities and life limiting conditions.

Sickening where their priorities are. They need sent a clear message on Fri week.

dreamers75 · 15-05-2014 12:27AM

Tail Docker wrote: »

EU tender rules blah blah

- tldr, because we(i.e the state) think foreign companies are better at everything, even though they usually aren't.

No they are not and they were not cheaper either.

HSE tendering almost every part of everything they do at the moment. have split themselves into 3 uhh north middle and south is the best way of saying it.

German company didnt win that tender as it was never tendered, it was simply outsourced without tendering.

My job in for all 3 and found out a part was sent off to germany without tender.

future tribunal

Ten of Swords · 15-05-2014 12:29AM

The Arvato european hub is in Dublin, they are owned by the Bertelsmann Media group.

HSE Tender

fullaljackeen · 15-05-2014 12:31AM

Ten of Swords wrote: »

The Avarto european hub is in Dublin, they are owned by the Bertelsmann Media group.

They tax dodgers too then?

dreamers75 · 15-05-2014 12:33AM

Arvato are a contractor for MSFT in the licence division of MSFT products.

/they get the money

SafeSurfer · 15-05-2014 12:34AM

Personally I would find the new onerous taxes and charges on my home and water etc a little more palatable if I felt that at least the most vulnerable of my fellow citizens were being protected. But I really do find it disgusting and cynical for medical cover to be withdrawn from the old and the sick and given to the young and the healthy under 6s.

fullaljackeen · 15-05-2014 12:35AM

dreamers75 wrote: »

Arvato are a contractor for MSFT in the licence division of MSFT products.

/they get the money

MSFT? Who are MSFT?

Doom · 15-05-2014 12:35AM

That explains why it took 11 days for a letter to reach me looking for extra info...

Stheno · 15-05-2014 12:39AM

dreamers75 wrote: »

No they are not and they were not cheaper either.

HSE tendering almost every part of everything they do at the moment. have split themselves into 3 uhh north middle and south is the best way of saying it.

German company didnt win that tender as it was never tendered, it was simply outsourced without tendering.

My job in for all 3 and found out a part was sent off to germany without tender.

future tribunal

What about the link in the post after yours? Is it possible you missed seeing the tender?

steveone · 15-05-2014 01:26AM

Why are the hse outsourcing sensitive work in the first place? Do they not need the cardholders permission to reveal sensitive information to a third party?

Stheno · 15-05-2014 01:27AM

steveone wrote: »

Why are the hse outsourcing sensitive work in the first place? Do they not need the cardholders permission to reveal sensitive information to a third party?

No as long as they make sure they fulfil their obligations under the data protection act

Smidge · 15-05-2014 01:32AM

Stheno wrote: »

No as long as they make sure they fulfil their obligations under the data protection act

I personally wouldn't have a great amount of faith in the DPA anymore.

SafeSurfer · 15-05-2014 01:44AM

Stheno wrote: »

No as long as they make sure they fulfil their obligations under the data protection act

Someone from a financial institution reviewing how many adult nappies your disabled mother gets to use per day? Lovely.

Smidge · 15-05-2014 01:54AM

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Someone from a financial institution reviewing how many adult nappies your disabled mother gets to use per day? Lovely.

And not only that but distance breeds well........distance.
Someone in Germany may not have any compassion to a situation so far away. It will be business. I personally think its a very clever ploy by our government to take the "heat" off them so that the dirty can be done and leave them with clean hands. "It wasn't us who took away a MC from a dying child, it was Hans"
And also, helluva lot of information available through the DPA.
Would a foreign company be bound by the DPA that has no teeth here?
Highly doubt it

Stheno · 15-05-2014 01:58AM

Smidge wrote: »

Would a foreign company be bound by the DPA that has no teeth here?
Highly doubt it

They can be contractually obliged to do so, I've worked in procurement where we looked to outsource and made it a condition of contracts that the supplier was a confirmed data processor

Smidge · 15-05-2014 02:00AM

Stheno wrote: »

They can be contractually obliged to do so, I've worked in procurement where we looked to outsource and made it a condition of contracts that the supplier was a confirmed data processor

So if someones information is leaked/abused, you can sue the German company?

Stheno · 15-05-2014 02:02AM

Smidge wrote: »

So if someones information is leaked/abused, you can sue the German company?

It's slightly more complicated than that, you sue the HSE as they are the data owners and have failed in meeting DPA requirements as a result of outsourcing.

Redsquigy · 15-05-2014 02:03AM

My disabled son got a form last week to review his medical card. On it it says "have your circumstances changed since your last review". I rang them and told them that unfortunately he has had no miracle over the last 9 years. He is still paralyzed from the neck down and until some medical miracle happens he will always be like that. The answer I got was "you still have to fill it in, we are reviewing everybody's medical card even mine". :eek:

Stheno · 15-05-2014 02:05AM

Redsquigy wrote: »

"you still have to fill it in, we are reviewing everybody's medical card even mine". :eek:

Can't be german then.

There seems to be a flaw in the system that it doesn't differentiate between permanent and non permanent conditions, and that's a sad reflection on the IT behind it.

sdanseo · 15-05-2014 02:08AM

Smidge wrote: »

So if someones information is leaked/abused, you can sue the German company?

No, you'd sue the HSE. Of course it doesn't have any money, so good luck with that.

It's good that the cards are being reviewed. There's no need for some people who have them to be issued with them, and there's plenty of people who would actually benefit from them who aren't eligible.

Each and every application for a card should be means tested individually. Employ a couple of actuaries to do this rather than basing it on the frankly farcical situation of basing it solely on a weekly income limit which takes no note at all of the person's ability to pay for medical expenses, other than a generic "allowance for reasonable rent/childcare expenses".

Smidge · 15-05-2014 02:11AM

Stheno wrote: »

It's slightly more complicated than that, you sue the HSE as they are the data owners and have failed in meeting DPA requirements as a result of outsourcing.

Well that sounds like it would work out fine so as we all know how easy that is.
So for a person with say a child in the Laura lynn who doesn't already have more than enough of their fair share of stress and hardship and there is a leak from the German company, they will have to take on the very people(HSE) who were deemed unable to carry the task of assessing the situation in the first place.
Like I said, should be grand.

sdanseo · 15-05-2014 02:16AM

Just spotted this on the eligibility requirements:

Single Person Aged 70 or over €600.00 Over €600.00 not
exceeding €700.00
Married Couple Aged 70 or over €1200.00 Over €1,200.00 not
exceeding €1,400.00

So a couple aged 71, who earn a combined €4,799 a month (equivalent to a gross combined salary of almost SIXTY GRAND) with let's be honest feck all expenditure or outgoings, no mortgage, no childcare costs, almost definitely private health insurance, are entitled to a medical card.

And we wonder where the bottom of this pit of money has gone? Reckless.

JerCotter7 · 15-05-2014 02:27AM

Whats a discretionary medical card? How is it different to a normal one?

Tail Docker · 15-05-2014 09:16AM

Specialun wrote: »

Ze germans take all our fun

My ma gets a small state pension - literally under 30 a week from the Irish state, some from the germans- 40 ish -(old lad worked there) and the bulk from the UK Govt.

I can happily report that the UK Govt are nice, decent people. The others are a shower of cnuts.

Review of medical cards outsourced to German company.

Comments