The decision by the President to refer the legislation on nursing home charges to the Supreme Court could cost health boards €20-€30million.
Department of Health sources said that health agencies are losing between €8 million and €10 million for every month that charges for nursing home care are not levied on medical card patients.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, ordered the abolition of charges for medical card patients in public nursing homes, as well as those in beds contracted from the private sector, following legal advice from the Attorney General.
The Supreme Court must rule on the constitutionality of the legislation governing the re-introduction of these charges within 60 days.
The legislation aims to make lawful, on a retrospective basis, the deduction of charges from the pensions of medical card patients.
Health service sources said that the referral of the bill to the Supreme Court could cost health boards more than €20 million and possibly up to €30 million in lost income from the charges.
A spokesman for the Tánaiste last night ruled out the Government providing special funding to health agencies to make up for the lost income from nursing home charges.
The spokesman said that health boards would have to absorb the loss of income by using contingency funds provided by the Department of Health in next year's spending plans.
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste's spokesman has said the Government's plans to offer a €2,000 ex-gratia payment to medical card patients who had money deducted illegally from their pensions would go ahead in January regardless of the decision to refer the legislation to the Supreme Court. The spokesman said that the payment was not part of the legislation.
