Some doctors are still waiting for payment on Government Health Insurance Plan (HIP) claims from 2005 – one month after the Health Minister announced that the backlog was cleared.

And although the majority of doctors said they were happy with the progress made in clearing the HIP backlog – four said they were now concerned about the slipping of payment on the Government Employee's Health Insurance Plan (GEHI), during the past year.

However last night Permanent Secretary of Health Warren Jones said it was not true that HIP claims were still outstanding and said doctors should contact the Ministry if they had a problem. Last month Nelson Bascome, Health Minister, sent a statement proclaiming ten years of HIP backlog at the Department of Social Insurance had been dealt with.

He said that HIP had now only to work on claims submitted this year and the whole process would be automated to bring it into the 21st century. A survey done by this paper of doctors offices yesterday, however, found three practices representing seven doctors were still waiting for payments on claims dating from 2004, 2005 and last year.

And at least one office with four doctors said they could not tell if their backlogged claims had been cleared because the Government had "dropped a whole bunch of stuff" on them.

The accounts department at that office is now struggling to match the lump sum paid by Government with past claims.

Physicians' practices that received all backlogged claims, however, also remained divided about how quickly their current claims were being repaid. Some saying 30 days and others as long as five to six months.

However, even those doctors offices which were still waiting for backlogged claims said HIP was doing much better than before and they were impressed with the work the department had done. Dr. Robert Martin of Island Health Services said the five physicians in the practice were impressed by the work done by the Department of Health and were pleased with the response time on current claims.

He said: "They have made a big reduction. There are still outstanding claims, but nothing like what it was before. It was in the five figures at one point.

"We are satisfied with what they are doing. Our group believes that HIP has made serious efforts to catch up."

Controversy surrounding HIP's backlogged has been well documented since Phil Perinchief, Health Minister at the time, admitted to the problem in the Senate last year. Additional part-time staff were hired to work through the claims producing the announcement by Mr. Bascome last month.

Permanent Secretary of Health Warren Jones said he was surprised by reports that physicians offices still had outstanding claims. And he said that the only way offices were still waiting is if they had not submitted claims in the past.

"Not true. That's not true (that claims were outstanding). We have some out there that have not submitted claims that they have held onto," he said.

"I find it extremely strange that after all the press that any physician would sit by quietly until you call them to say they have not been paid. We need the name of anyone that has not received payment. (Since the backlog clearance announcement) Our rate of complaints have dropped to almost nil."

He further clarified that any physician's office that was still sorting out the money they received was expected because the backlog was so immense.

He added the Government had sent them schedules to help with the process as well as working with the accounting departments.

The Assistant Director of Social Insurance has also personally visited offices to discuss the procedure and to deliver cheques to the physicians.

"Doctors have been co-operative and HIP continues to look forward to resolving all claims queries with doctors. They simply need to contact us to resolve any outstanding issues they might have," he added.

"There is no discrepancy in what we stated, the backlog has been cleared. If there is any physician out there claiming to not have been paid they should identify themselves to me directly."

Last night, Minister of Finance Paula Cox issued a statement saying: "The Ministry of Finance takes any allegations regarding perceived delays in the Government Employees Health Insurance (GEHI) payment system very seriously.

"The Ministry advised that it will look into any complaints or concerns with a view to assessing their validity. It should be noted however, that over the last few years the Government Employees Health Insurance Section has been restructured and a new claims processing system implemented which has resulted in improved section efficiency."

Ms Cox added: "Notwithstanding this, we are looking to enhance service delivery by systemic improvements."