Treatment fund: The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has rejected a renewed call that it publish the rates it pays to hospitals for surgical procedures.
Reacting to criticism by cardiac surgeon Maurice Neligan in his column in The Irish Times, the NTPF said yesterday it was "fully accountable to the public" and was audited by the Comptroller & Auditor General, John Purcell.
But it said it could not release details of the rates it negotiated with each hospital as these were "commercially sensitive".
"No other purchaser of private healthcare would be expected to do any different," it said in a statement to The Irish Times.
"However, all NTPF agreements are individually negotiated, are fully inclusive of pre-op and post-op visits to give the best value to the taxpayer."
Mr Neligan had asked in his column whether some patients had had treatments paid for by the fund at the same hospitals from which their names had been taken from waiting lists.
The NTPF said 92 per cent of its work was carried out in private hospitals in 2005. However, it was permitted to use spare capacity in public hospitals under "strict criteria". "No more than 10 per cent of our work is carried out in this way, and in a manner which ensures that core hospital activity is not affected."
Mr Purcell reported last year that he found "huge variations" in the amount paid by the NTPF to hospitals for the same treatments.
The NTPF claimed a new analysis found there was not such a widespread variation.