Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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168. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to review the Northern Ireland planned healthcare scheme in order to align the rate being charged for procedures undertaken by hospitals in Northern Ireland with the rate paid by the HSE given that this can often be seriously misaligned and can burden patients with large additional costs and act as a disincentive to persons from undergoing necessary procedures; the timeframe for a permanent statutory scheme to be put in place to replace the temporary Northern Ireland planned healthcare scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7896/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme has been in effective operation since 1 January 2021. This Scheme was introduced to mitigate the loss of access to care from private providers in Northern Ireland under the EU Cross Border Directive, which ceased to apply as a result of Brexit. The Government intends to place the administrative Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme on a statutory basis and an extensive examination of options to inform the drafting of a General Scheme is currently underway. It is also important to note that the administrative scheme will remain until such time that a statutory scheme is in place.

The Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme enables persons resident in the State to access and be reimbursed for private healthcare in Northern Ireland by the HSE, provided such healthcare is publicly available within Ireland. Such healthcare will be reimbursed at the cost of providing that treatment in the State or the cost of same in Northern Ireland, whichever is the lesser. Rates of reimbursement are set by the HSE and are those applicable to the cost of treatment in the public health service in Ireland. Furthermore, reimbursement is confined to the costs of the care itself and does not include any additional costs incurred by the patient such as travel or accommodation costs.

Patients are advised to contact the HSE NI Planned Healthcare office directly for further information on individual applications for reimbursement under the NI Planned Healthcare Scheme. Contact details are available on the HSE NI Planned Healthcare website.