Health (Amendment) Act 2013
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Insertion of new sections 67A, 67B, 67C and 67D in Act of 1970. |
19.— The Act of 1970 is amended by the insertion, after section 67, of the following sections: | |
“Definition of ‘residential support services’. | ||
67A.— (1) In this Part ‘residential support services’ means any health or personal social service excluding— | ||
(a) acute in-patient services, | ||
(b) long-term residential care services, and | ||
(c) out-patient services provided under section 56, | ||
provided by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive under section 7 of the Health Act 2004 or under any other enactment, to a person residing in a— | ||
(i) hospital, | ||
(ii) convalescent home, | ||
(iii) nursing home, | ||
(iv) home or other category of housing accommodation for persons with a physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual disability, | ||
or in accommodation ancillary thereto, and whose accommodation therein is provided by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive. | ||
(2) A reference in subsection (1) to long-term residential care services shall be construed as a reference to such services provided to a person who first began to receive those services on or after 27 October 2009. | ||
Residential support services. | ||
67B.— The Health Service Executive may make available residential support services to persons with full eligibility and persons with limited eligibility. | ||
Residential support services maintenance and accommodation contributions. | ||
67C.— (1) (a) Subject to subsections (3) to (6) and section 67D, a person provided with residential support services, whether provided by the Health Service Executive or on behalf of the Health Service Executive, shall pay a financial contribution, in accordance with regulations made by the Minister under this section, towards the cost of maintenance and accommodation associated with the provision of such residential support services. | ||
(b) In this section and in sections 67B and 67D, a ‘residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution’ means a contribution required to be paid pursuant to this section and regulations made under subsection (2). | ||
(2) (a) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, make regulations— | ||
(i) making it a requirement that persons to whom residential support services are provided, or persons belonging to a specified class or classes of such persons, shall pay a contribution, in specified circumstances, towards the cost of maintenance and accommodation associated with the provision of such residential support services, and | ||
(ii) specifying the amounts of the contributions or the limits to the amount of such contributions. | ||
(b) In specifying amounts of contributions required to be paid in regulations made under paragraph (a), the Minister may specify different amounts by reference to the income of the persons required to pay such contributions. | ||
(c) Regulations relating to the matters specified in paragraph (a) may contain such ancillary or subsidiary provisions as the Minister considers necessary or expedient, including provisions relating to the manner of payment, the persons to whom payments are to be made and the collection of monies due and the disposal of monies received in respect of contributions required to be made pursuant to such regulations. | ||
(3) (a) The amount of a contribution required to be paid pursuant to regulations made under subsection (2) shall be expressed as a daily amount, which amount shall not exceed 80 per cent of the maximum daily rate of the State pension (non-contributory). | ||
(b) For the purposes of this section— | ||
(i) a person shall be considered as receiving residential support services on a particular day where that person was receiving those services at midnight on the day concerned, | ||
(ii) a reference to the maximum daily rate of the State pension (non-contributory) shall be construed as a reference to one seventh of the maximum weekly rate of State pension (non-contributory), and | ||
(iii) State pension (non-contributory) has the same meaning as it has in the Social Welfare Acts. | ||
(4) A residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution in respect of a particular day shall be payable where, in the 12 month period ending on that day, the person has previously received residential support services on at least 30 days. | ||
(5) In calculating the number of days on which a person has received residential support services within the 12 month period referred to in subsection (4)— | ||
(a) a day on which a person has received acute in-patient services as defined in section 51 (whether before or after the coming into operation of this section or regulations made under it) unless the person concerned was liable to make payment of a charge under section 55 in respect of those services, | ||
(b) a day on which a person was in receipt of State support within the meaning of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 (whether before or after the coming into operation of this section or regulations made under it), and | ||
(c) a day on which a person received services under this Act provided by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive prior to the coming into operation of sections 67A, 67C, 67D or this section or regulations made under it, which services would, if those sections and regulations had been in force at the time of the provision of those services, have constituted residential support services, | ||
shall be treated as a day on which the person concerned has been provided with residential support services. | ||
(6) Subsection (5) applies notwithstanding that— | ||
(a) the person concerned is a person to whom subsection (7) applies as respects one or more than one of the days, or | ||
(b) the Health Service Executive has, pursuant to guidelines approved under section 67D, as respects the person concerned waived, in whole or in part, the amount of the contribution payable. | ||
(7) A residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution shall not be payable where the residential support services are provided to— | ||
(a) a person under 18 years of age, | ||
(b) a woman receiving services in respect of motherhood, | ||
(c) a person detained involuntarily under the Mental Health Acts 2001 to 2009, | ||
(d) a person detained in a designated centre under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 , | ||
(e) a person who pursuant to section 2 of the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 , in the opinion of the Health Service Executive, has contracted Hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin Anti-D or the receipt within the State of another blood product or a blood transfusion, | ||
(f) a person in respect of the treatment of infectious diseases prescribed under Part IV of the Health Act 1947 , | ||
(g) a person who pays charges which are charged under section 53A, or | ||
(h) a person in receipt of State support or ancillary State support within the meaning of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 . | ||
Waiver of residential support services maintenance and accommodation contributions. | ||
67D.— (1) (a) The Health Service Executive may waive (in whole or in part) the obligation of a person to make payment of a residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution. | ||
(b) The Health Service Executive shall not exercise the power referred to in paragraph (a) unless, having regard to the financial circumstances of the person concerned, it is satisfied that— | ||
(i) it is necessary to do so in order to avoid undue financial hardship on the part of the person concerned or his or her dependants, | ||
(ii) it is necessary to do so, or that doing so would be of significant benefit, in advancing the medical, therapeutic, rehabilitative or health-related needs of the person concerned (including, where a care plan has been prepared for that person by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive, needs relating to meeting objectives specified in such a care plan), or | ||
(iii) it is reasonable to do so having regard to the extent to which the person concerned provides for his or her own maintenance. | ||
(2) The Health Service Executive shall exercise the power referred to in subsection (1) in accordance with such guidelines as stand approved by the Minister pursuant to this section. | ||
(3) Where the Health Service Executive exercises the power under subsection (1), it shall in each case record in writing the basis for the decision to exercise that power. | ||
(4) The Health Service Executive shall prepare guidelines relating to the exercise of the power referred to in subsection (1), and where requested to do so by the Minister shall prepare revised guidelines. | ||
(5) Guidelines prepared by the Health Service Executive under subsection (4) shall be submitted by the Health Service Executive to the Minister. | ||
(6) Where guidelines are submitted to the Minister pursuant to subsection (5), the Minister may— | ||
(a) with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, approve the guidelines concerned, | ||
(b) with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, approve the guidelines concerned subject to specified amendments, or | ||
(c) refuse to approve the guidelines concerned. | ||
(7) Where guidelines stand approved under this section, the Minister may revoke such guidelines. | ||
(8) The Health Service Executive shall publish or cause to be published, in such manner as it considers appropriate, guidelines standing approved by the Minister pursuant to this section.”. |