Private practice: The Competition Authority has set a deadline of March 10th for submissions on how medical fees for doctors in private practice should be set.
It follows the resolution of a dispute between the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) last September over alleged price fixing.
The authority ruled the IHCA's involvement in negotiating fees between consultants and health insurers breached the Competition Act. It said the effect or objective of the IHCA's collective negotiations had been to fix fees paid to consultants.
The IHCA then undertook to play no role in such negotiations. The IHCA, which had denied it was in breach of the Act, gave the undertaking without an admission of liability.
IHCA president Josh Keaveney said yesterday he had not heard anything yet about the consultation process. He said he understood the authority was trying to set up an agreed framework whereby it would lay down the parameters under which the IHCA could talk to health insurers such as Bupa, VHI and Vivas. He said the IHCA had no stance on the matter.
In a statement, the authority said it was initiating a "formal consultation process" regarding setting medical fees for doctors in private practice. "The focus of the Competition Authority's consultation is the negotiations of private medical fees between the medical profession and private health insurers or hospitals."
The authority said it had published a consultation document with 40 detailed questions seeking information from all interested parties. It said the consultation process's purpose was to design guidelines concerning the role of collective negotiations in setting medical fees.
It maintained that such guidelines were common practice in other countries such as the US and Australia.
The authority's monopolies division director Paul Gorecki said the aim was to encourage "value for money and choice" for consumers who buy private health insurance. The consultation document is available from its website at www.tca.ie.