An estimated 70,000 people or their estates who were illegally charged for a public bed in nursing or residential homes can now apply for repayment.
The HSE repayment scheme started yesterday and covers long-stay residents of public and other residential facilities and patients who occupied a public bed in a private nursing home.
Those who were wrongly charged are those who had or were eligible for a medical card and were in publicly-funded residential care but had public long-stay charges deducted up to December 9th, 2004.
A total of €1 billion will be paid out in the compensation scheme, €15 million of which will go to the scheme administrating companies, KPMG and McCann FitzGerald. The average refund will be €15,000 but will be more for those in longer-term facilities.
Claims can be made by returning a form to the scheme administrator for assessment. Priority will be given to the claims of an estimated 20,000 people who are still alive and were wrongly charged at any time from August 1976. These payments are exempt from income tax and will not affect social welfare entitlements.
This first phase will be followed by claims by relatives and the estates of people who were wrongly charged and who died on or after December 9th, 1998.
At a press conference yesterday, Bernie Haddington, of the HSE national co-ordinating unit, said the Supreme Court ruled last year that the deductions from those in nursing homes were illegal.
The Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 came into force on June 30th and is expected to run for two years. The latest date for receipt of claims is December 31st, 2007.
Kieran Wallace, of KPMG, said that more than 300 institutions were covered by the scheme. "Our job is to go out and gather in each of the institutions the underlying records necessary to determine the quantum of the claims," he said. "This will be followed by a calculation of the claim itself."
The legislation provides for a 28-day cooling-off period from the day the letter containing the amount is sent to the claimant, which allows for an appeal by the claimant.
If the claimant accepts the amount, then the claim will be passed on for payment by the HSE. It could take a few months but would be within six months.
"It is a very large project," Mr Wallace added. "We have 160 people working on this and, as claims come in, this will increase to 300 people."
Jane Marshall, of McCann FitzGerald, said that there would be an independent appeals process, separate from the HSE. "The scheme is for the benefit of the most vulnerable people in society. For anybody not able to make the claim, through mental or physical incapacity, then the HSE can make the claim on behalf of those people. It is a safety net."