THE Health Service Executive was last night accused of putting money before patients' lives after it became embroiled in yet another controversy over the awarding of State contracts to companies involved in fraud scandals.

Last night it emerged that the HSE awarded a multi-million euro contract to a multinational company that has paid out half a billion dollars in fraud settlements.

German kidney dialysis giant Fresenius was forced to fork out half a billion dollars in fines and settlements to Medicare, the health insurance scheme in the United States, the Irish Independent has learned.

Contracts

Fresenius, which operates a kidney dialysis centre on behalf of the HSE in north Dublin, has now been awarded lucrative contracts to run similar facilities in Limerick and Kilkenny.

However, the HSE last night refused to say if it knew the same company was at the centre of the largest fraud settlement in US history prior to the awarding of the contract.

It comes just days after the Irish Independent revealed another US company, Quest Diagnostics, that was awarded the lucrative national contract for testing cervical smears, has paid out almost €40m in fraud settlements over the past decade.

Opposition health frontbenchers last night accused the HSE of putting budgetary concerns before the lives of patients.

“I'd be concerned with the company the HSE is keeping,” Fine Gael’s Dr James Reilly told the Irish Independent.

“Every time you look at what the HSE say, it's about putting patients first. Every time you look at what they do it's about saving money, not saving lives.”

Labour Party health spokesperson Jan O'Sullivan said she was extremely concerned with the HSE’s policy of hiring private companies and the privatisation of the health services.

“There almost seems to be a policy of going for big US companies and outside firms. Fundamentally, that needs to be re-examined,” she said.

Background

The HSE last night said it could not confirm if Fresenius’s financial background was known to health managers who awarded the lucrative State contract to the company.

The massive $500m fines related to offences including fraudulent and fictitious blood testing claims and kickbacks to dialysis facilities in return for blood testing.

Christine Houghton, Fresenius director in Ireland, yesterday confirmed the company had made the record fraud settlement. She claimed it related to a company Fresenius took over in the mid 1990s.

However she admitted the settlement “wasn't something that we ever gave details of ” to the HSE.

Ms Houghton said Fresenius took over another company, National Medicalcare, in 1996. They subsequently discovered there was an investigation under way by the FDA into practices in the organisation.

“When we took over responsibility we carried out a review of the practices and changed them. We put in place a compliance programme, an ethical business programme and that incorporated different processes for billing practices. We also put an internal whistlelblow whistlelblowing procedure in place,” Ms Houghton said.

The company ended up paying fines totalling $101m and a civil settlement reaching $385m – the biggest of its kind ever in the US.

Planning permission for the dialysis unit in Riverside Retail Park in Limerick was granted last week and welcomed by the HSE. It boasted the new facility would have the capacity to provide for up to 60 patients in the region.

It already operates a similar facility at Northern Cross on the Malahide Rd in Dublin to relieve pressure on Beaumont Hospital and is seeking planning permission for another unit in Kilkenny.

Plans for the Kilkenny unit were rejected by the Irish Kidney Association because the building only had one window.

When asked what kind of checks were carried out in advance of awarding the Limerick contract, the HSE would only say that Fresenius was one of five service providers reviewed.

“A multidisciplinary group including clinical and technical membership was established to assess all elements of proposals received. Some of these included financial standing of the suppliers, experience, clinical expertise, staff training, proposed quality of service, health and safety, infection control and cost,” a HSE spokesperson said.