Medical Consultants Under Investigation for Illegal ‘Cash-for-Care’ Payments

Several consultants are being investigated for allegedly illegally charging private patients for treatments already covered by their healthcare plans,

pinare.online

can reveal.

In one case, a private healthcare customer who was diagnosed with cancer was charged €1,500 for some treatments that do not even exist.

The State

Consumer Protection Agency

has confirmed it has received several complaints this year about consultants accused of illegally seeking cash-for-care payments.

The revelation comes after

pinare.online

recently revealed how patients at one public hospital were routinely asked for cash for scans to ‘bump’ them up non-existent waiting lists.

As a result of this practice, highly paid consultants pocketed thousands of euros for private work. But now it has emerged that irregular cash-for-care practices appear to be more widespread.

Asked this week how many complaints it has received from public patients, medical card holders and patients with health insurance being charged for care they were entitled to get free of charge, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) confirmed: ‘So far in 2025, our helpline has received eight contacts relating to unexpected charges or for medical treatments.’

The consumer watchdog would not say if these complaints are the subject of ongoing investigations.

In a separate case, one pensioner who was diagnosed with cancer claimed they were charged up to €1,500 for tests and scans they never received.

They told

pinare.online

: ‘I have health insurance, and I went as a private patient to a consultant who is based at a public hospital. I paid €1,500 for scans and express blood tests, which I have since found out there is no such thing. I paid in advance and received none of these. I was told by a member of staff at the hospital that these tests and scans would be put down as a consultation fee with the consultant, and this would be sent to the health insurance company.’

The cancer patient added: ‘This is the last thing I need. Stress will kill you quicker than any cancer. I went to the patient advocacy people in the hospital about it. But, they told me that they could only do something about it if I was a public patient and not a private patient.’

The Department of Health confirmed the Patient Advocacy Service – which provides a free and independent service to make a formal complaint regarding the care they have received – is available ‘to all patients accessing services in public acute hospitals’.

The pensioner got in touch after reading on

pinare.online

about consultants who have earned significant sums of money from private work.

The cancer patient said: ‘Until then, I thought I was the only one that this has happened to.’

In a protected disclosure to

pinare.online

, a whistleblower stated that patients at a public hospital were asked to pay cash for scans to ‘bump’ them up on non-existent waiting lists, allowing consultants to profit from private work.

This hospital is separate from the three other public hospitals – Naas General Hospital,

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin

and a Children’s Health Ireland hospital – that are under investigation for alleged misuse of funding under the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

It has emerged that almost €100m of taxpayers’ money was spent in just over two and a half years to external companies that use HSE-owned facilities and equipment outside working hours – often employing existing health service staff – to reduce waiting lists.

A report prepared for Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill revealed that 83 serving or former health staff act as directors in 148 companies providing arrangements to reduce waiting lists.

On Thursday, the chief executive of the NTPF informed the Public Accounts Committee that two other hospitals had until Friday to explain how they had spent the funds allocated to them to reduce waiting lists.

Asked this weekend if the hospitals had complied with the deadline and if they would be named, the NTPF had no comment to make.