CONCERNS WERE raised yesterday about how the Health Service Executive (HSE) came to award contracts for the provision of dialysis treatment services to a company which had reached a multimillion dollar fraud settlement with the US government, writes Eithne Donnellan.
Fresenius, a global giant in the provision of dialysis services, is due to deliver dialysis services to patients in the southeast and the midwest under contracts awarded by the HSE. It already provides dialysis care from a centre at Northern Cross in Dublin.
Last week the company received planning permission to build a dialysis centre in Limerick but the Health Services Action Group (HSAG) yesterday expressed concern about the company's past.
Fresenius, which has headquarters in Germany, had made a settlement of $486 million (€313 million) with the US government in relation to incorrect billing practices in 2000. It was a record settlement at that time.
The HSAG claimed the quality of patient care was at stake as well as taxpayers' money by the awarding by the HSE of a contract to such a company.
"Can the HSE now explain how having a history of fraud payments in the United States is compatible with due diligence in awarding multimillion healthcare contracts?" Dr John Barton, HSAG vice-chairman, asked.
A Fresenius spokeswoman said the fraud settlement was made in respect of a company which was taken over by it in the US in 1996.
Christine Haughton said the investigation by the FDA into incorrect billing practices by National Medical Care was already under way at the time of its takeover.
She said Fresenius had taken over liability for any penalty which would later be imposed in respect of the incorrect billing.
Before the amount of the settlement was announced she said Fresenius had conducted an internal review and put in place procedures to ensure it didn't happen again.
Asked if she understood concerns about the company being given a contract to provide patient services in Ireland given its history, Ms Haughton said: "Fresenius Medical Care had no part in the activity . . . immediately we became involved we stopped those practices and put in place appropriate procedures."
The news of Fresenius' fraud settlement comes just days after it was reported that the National Cancer Screening Service had awarded a contract to analyse all Irish smear tests to a different US company - Quest Diagnostics - which had also settled multimillion dollar fraud settlements with the US government.
These settlements had also been in relation to alleged overcharging.
The HSE said that as part of the tender process, Fresenius "declared to the HSE that they met all legal requirements and had no impediments or convictions in relation to the service that they tendered for".