A doctor's office is still waiting for reimbursement from the Government Health Insurance Plan (HIP) on claims submitted almost two years ago for a woman who has since died.

The woman was treated for a range of illnesses in 2006 and the total claim was $1,288, but she subsequently died in May of that year.

Last November the woman's daughter was told by the doctor that HIPhad still not paid and since then the woman, who does not want to be identified, has been chasing the social insurance department to get the money for the doctor.

She called this paper after a story last week, which reported seniors at one physicians office were planning on leaving their HIP reimbursements in their wills.

The 44-year-old Paget woman said she was infuriated that her mother's HIP payments had been taken out of her account on a three month basis, but when the doctor needs to be paid, HIPtakes years.

She said: "It's irresponsible. They have taken my mothers money up front.Now she's passed away and you still can't pay her bills? We are talking about my mother's claim. My mother has been dead for almost two years now."

The Department of Social Insurance agent she had been working with since last year at the told her someone else would be working on her file.

That conversation started with the new agent asking about her HIP claim, not her mothers. Now the woman says, she fears never receiving payment for the doctor's office.

Yesterday Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson said: "This is another very startling fact about the complete inadequacies of the HIP office administration

"They keep saying the are improving or have improved. They are attempting to be computerised. They say they have more staff but every day there is a story about people who are having problems.

"The office is not doing their job."

Last year the temporary Health Minister Philip Perinchief acknowledged there was a backlog with HIP and that more needed to be done.

Since then, the Government has placed former medical clinic patients and war veterans on HIP and recently advertised for new accounts.

Yesterday Warren Jones, Permanent Secretary of Health reiterated that steps have been taken, but that does not mean the problem has been eliminated and encouraged those without payments to contact the Ministry.He said: "The Department of Social Insurance has made tremendous strides to address a problem that dates back over years.

"We have not hidden from this issue and in several stories have openly admitted the problem and the steps we are taking to address it."This does not mean that we have eliminated the problem. You can bet that everyone will hear from us when we have it completely licked.

"We can state though that our present situation is not what it was 12 months ago or even what it was 12 weeks ago. Each day brings us closer to resolution."We are not surprised or upset that people are coming forward to express their frustration that their particular claim has not been addressed.

We apologise for that frustration and work toward resolution."I invite persons who have a concern to contact me at the Ministry of Health so that their concerns might be investigated."