Review of medical cards outsourced to German company.

o1s1n

drdeadlift wrote: »

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

Just hope that if you ever do need one, you qualify.

I need one, but unfortunately my chronic illness isn't on the HSE's list. People have campaigned to have it added, but so far the HSE refuses to.

Because it's not on this list I'm simply means tested like everyone else - and don't qualify that way either down to earning a salary.

Uriel.

Daith wrote: »

That's fine but do you still need to ask if their child is still permanently ill? Again a slight changing of the form would do wonders. Bloody hell.

So you do want tailored forms after all?

Daith

Uriel. wrote: »

So you do want tailored forms after all?

Yes tailored to different sections. That could be either the frequency or content or both. Anything wrong with that?

Uriel.

Daith wrote: »

My original point was to tailor the form to different sections. What is wrong with that? The fequency, the content it doesn't matter.

You nitpick at every word.

Why waste money doing that.

Have a standard form. Answer the questions and get on with it. It's not like you have to fill it in every week

BBJBIG

Listen up, Pixie Heads ....
De whole of Oireland is OutSourced or Owned (... happening more and more) by Johnny Forrener.
And, some peeple tink dat's a good ting !!! FFS.

Daith

Uriel. wrote: »

Why waste money doing that.

Have a standard form. Answer the questions and get on with it. It's not like you have to fill it in every week

How would you waste money?

Uriel.

Daith wrote: »

How would you waste money?

By adding layers of bureaucracy on top of others.
I must ring someone about the blood donor form. I'm getting so sick of telling them I don't have sex with men and yet everytime they ask me the same questions. No I wasn't in England during those years, like I told you the last time and no I didn't get a time machine and go back.

Same questions. It's so frustrating and infringes my rights blah blah blah

foggy_lad

dreamers75 wrote: »

Why did an Irish company lose the tender for this?

They were probably allowing too many people to keep their cards.

Stheno wrote: »

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

Are any of the people with access to so much information on most of the children in the country Garda vetted or checked in any way for criminal convictions?

Stheno wrote: »

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.

It is all about the money now, what you suffer from is not a deciding factor anymore, if you are over the threshold you will be cut off unless you can prove special circumstances.

JerCotter7 wrote: »

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

For those who had means above the limits for a medical card but who might have certain conditions or terminal illnesses or cancer etc they were usually given a discretionary card for a year or the duration of their illness. This has now stopped.

Uriel. wrote: »

How often are people reviewed?

most people are revied every one or two years and others will be given a card for three or even five years depending on their illness/disability.

Daith

Uriel. wrote: »

By adding layers of bureaucracy on top of others.

Nope. It's all automated or should be from a database and mail merge. You clearly have no idea.

SpaceTime

wendell borton wrote: »

The EU is really pushing this free market bollockology too far, looks like they want to make national governments nothing but rubber stampers for outsourcing corporations.

All the EU says is that *if* you're outsourcing it has to go to a competitive tender. The Minister for Health or the HSE decided to do the outsourcing, nothing to do with the EU.

Irish companies actually benefit hugely by winning other countries' public tenders too. So it's really kinda all swings and roundabouts.

It also cleaned up the tendering process and undermined a lot of cronyism both in Ireland and in other countries where those in the know and 'national champions' used to win all tenders in the past.

The Irish Government however is the policy driver here so don't let them off the hook by blaming the EU. Nobody's forcing them to outsource anything.

Also the state is hardly under resourced in terms of administrators. Surely they could just be moved around to process this in house? They're already on the payrole and with modern IT they shouldn't even have to change desk.

Uriel.

Daith wrote: »

Nope. It's all automated or should be from a database and mail merge. You clearly have no idea.

You clearly don't. It "should be".

Seriously, one person taking exception to a question on a form that asks something along the lines of "do you still suffer from the condition described above", leads to this kind of discussion is ridiculous. Let's change all the forms because someone can't just ask the bloody question.

The only reason the question was highlighted at all was because the woman was upset a out her child not qualifying for the medical card anymore.

How many hundreds or thousands of people fill in these forms every year and just answer the questions and get on with it.

Uriel.

SpaceTime wrote: »

All the EU says is that *if* you're outsourcing it has to go to a competitive tender. The Minister for Health or the HSE decided to do the outsourcing, nothing to do with the EU.

Irish companies actually benefit hugely by winning other countries' public tenders too. So it's really kinda all swings and roundabouts.

It also cleaned up the tendering process and undermined a lot of cronyism both in Ireland and in other countries where those in the know and 'national champions' used to win all tenders in the past.

The Irish Government however is the policy driver here so don't let them off the hook by blaming the EU. Nobody's forcing them to outsource anything.

It's a very strange argument to have... Getting angry at transparency and openness as to how government spends public money and who they award contracts to.

SpaceTime

Uriel. wrote: »

It's a very strange argument to have... Getting angry at transparency and openness as to how government spends public money and who they award contracts to.

It's all that same blame everyone else agenda, especially anyone who is far enough away to be unable to partake in the debate.

Notice how the Government will also blame its proxy the HSE as if it were some kind of alien entity...

Dravokivich

Stheno wrote: »

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.

Not really. As you know yourself the IT will only do what someone has required it to be set up to do. I've argue'd against clients and given them in no uncertain terms the reasons why their orders/requests/specs were wrong and they still went through with it. They'd gotten tools/management software which didn't met the requirements of their end users and just left them to go the long way around getting things resolved. They continue to go full steam ahead with such arrogance.

Woodville56

SpaceTime wrote: »

Also the state is hardly under resourced in terms of administrators. Surely they could just be moved around to process this in house? They're already on the payrole and with modern IT they shouldn't even have to change desk.

Medical card administration was previously managed at local office level in each Community Care area until some bright spark in the higher echelons of the HSE / Dept of Health decided it would be more efficient and improve uniformity in decision making to centralise the medical card admin process in Dublin! What they really intended was to restrict the number of cards issued thus saving money !! The view was held at DoHC level that local administrators were being "too soft " on marginal / discretional cases - thus the present debacle where eligibility is based on a purely financial calculation of means etc, with no consideration of social or other pertinent factors as often arise in hardship cases. No fault to the admin staff in Central Processing, it's just that they do not have the experience or insight that their local office colleagues would have in deciding on marginal or hardship cases - it's all about expediency, control and saving money really , but at the expense of genuinely needy people

bumper234

Daith wrote: »

Nope. It's all automated or should be from a database and mail merge. You clearly have no idea.

Lol there's your answer


MAILMERGE can solve everything


Thanks Microsoft

Sh1tbag OToole

Isnt Bertelsmann the crowd that were suing Napster back in the day?

Daith

bumper234 wrote: »

Lol there's your answer


MAILMERGE can solve everything


Thanks Microsoft

Nope apparently one form fits all. Why go to any effort at all. Or maybe the HSE hand writes letters to patients does it. I mean it can't even get letters sent from one office to the other without losing them. :rolleyes:

So what if a parent is being asked to state whether their child's still has a permanent illness. This isn't about empathy. It's about laziness.

There's no disadvantage to what I'm suggesting and I haven't seen a reason from you as to why not to implement it.

mickydoomsux

Daith wrote: »

This isn't about empathy.

This is the only sensible thing you've said in this thread.

It a question on a piece of paper. Answer it and get on with your life. Such entitlement and preciousness on display with this nonsense.

bumper234

Daith wrote: »

Nope apparently one form fits all. Why go to any effort at all. Or maybe the HSE hand writes letters to patients does it. I mean it can't even get letters sent from one office to the other without losing them. :rolleyes:

So what if a parent is being asked to state whether their child's still has a permanent illness. This isn't about empathy. It's about laziness.

There's no disadvantage to what I'm suggesting and I haven't seen a reason from you as to why not to implement it.

Cost, Simple as that.

Daith

mickydoomsux wrote: »

This is the only sensible thing you've said in this thread.

It a question on a piece of paper. Answer it and get on with your life. Such entitlement and preciousness on display with this nonsense.

Have you ever filled in the form? Oh nevermind. People get on with your lives.

Daith

bumper234 wrote: »

Cost, Simple as that.

What cost?

bumper234

Daith wrote: »

What cost?

All of the forms will need to be reprinted and even then at the end of it you will still get some people who will not be happy with the questions. Standardized forms are the way to go and has been said already just fill the forms in answer the questions and move on.

Daith

bumper234 wrote: »

All of the forms will need to be reprinted and even then at the end of it you will still get some people who will not be happy with the questions. Standardized forms are the way to go and has been said already just fill the forms in answer the questions and move on.

Fair enough. People should just move on and stop moaning.

bumper234 wrote: »

Residents near croke park are virtually prisoners in their own homes on concert nights.

Quit your moaning and move on.

mickydoomsux

Daith wrote: »

Have you ever filled in the form?

I tried to but i simply couldn't.

I broke down crying 4 times at the insensitive questions on it before i had to give up completely

If only someone from the HSE had personally come round to my house and coaxed the answer out of me in a sensitive manner.

bumper234

Daith wrote: »

Fair enough. People should just move on and stop moaning.



Quit your moaning and move on.

Lol

Apples and Oranges.

What an idiotic riposte :rolleyes:

Daith

bumper234 wrote: »

Lol

Apples and Oranges.

What an idiotic riposte :rolleyes:

Nope. When you feel you are being treated unfairly it's a big deal "prisoners in our own homes". When other people feel they've been treated unfairly they should just get over it and move on because money.

You think your issue is big and important but dismiss other people's issues and tell them to move on. It's interesting.

It's just a question on a form. So what. It's just a concert.

bumper234

Daith wrote: »

Nope. When you feel you are being treated unfairly it's a big deal "prisoners in our own homes". When other people feel they've been treated unfairly they should just get over it and move on because money.

You think your issue is big and important but dismiss other people's issues and tell them to move on. It's interesting.

It's just a question on a form. So what. It's just a concert.

There is a MASSIVE difference between having 100's of thousands of people walking past your house over the space of 5 days and having to answer a question on a form.

SpaceTime

bumper234 wrote: »

Lol there's your answer


MAILMERGE can solve everything


Thanks Microsoft

Mail Merge predates microsoft by a long time. I'd say IBM were doing it in the 50s. Spamming people was one of the first things they used computers for commercially.

I'm sure the HSE mainframe can handle it if you put in the right punch cards.

Daith

bumper234 wrote: »

There is a MASSIVE difference between having 100's of thousands of people walking past your house over the space of 5 days and having to answer a question on a form.

To you! The person answering whether his son still has down's syndrome once again might not think you even have an issue.

So again, people should shut up and stop moaning and follow your advice. Including yourself.