The VHI hopes to meet officials of the Department of Health and Children this week following the rejection of its application for a 9 per cent subscription increase.
The rejection was part of the Government's anti-inflation measures and the VHI was told about it on Friday.
It is expected hospital consultants will be asked this week to freeze their fees for private outpatient clinics and for seeing patients in their private rooms. The VHI said yesterday that "we understand there are pressures around inflation and we are quite happy to go in and discuss this with the Department of Health".
"We believe we have made a very good business case for what we are seeking," a spokeswoman said.
She would not discuss the amount of the subscription increase sought by the VHI but it is believed to be in the region of 9 per cent, a figure which is in line with increases in recent years. Medical inflation is 7 per cent to 12 per cent worldwide.
The VHI has to get permission for subscription increases from its shareholder, the Minister for Health and Children. Its competitor, BUPA Ireland, does not have to get permission for subscription increases. BUPA's pattern has been to hold off any increases until spring. Its chief executive, Mr Martin O'Rourke, said yesterday BUPA has no plans to increase premiums this year and he welcomes price competition.
It is believed the VHI has been told it may get permission for a lower subscription increase.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association said yesterday it has been invited to meet the Minister for Health on Wednesday but had not been given details of what the meeting would be about.
Its secretary general, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said if the Government sought to freeze fees this would have its greatest effect on about 150 consultants who are in entirely private practice.
The Irish Patients' Association yesterday called on the VHI to publish full details of its price increase application. The association called for "a full value for money audit" of the health services. Patients should be represented in the audit mechanism and the audit should be seen "not as a cost-saving exercise but to redirect saved resources towards new opportunities to improve the lot of all patients."
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