The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said that she would like to see general practitioners who provided an expanded range of services paid differently in the future.
The Minister said she wanted to see GPs providing a wider range of services over an expanded day as part of a new contract to be negotiated with the State.
Ms Harney said that she would like a system whereby GP practices which offered a more comprehensive range of services - such as chronic illness management - and operated over a longer day were remunerated differently based on the level of services they provided.
She said this was not the case at present but she considered it to be the way of the future.
"In the health professional business, which it is a business, it is important that we distinguish between one level of service and another," she said.
The negotiation of a new contract for GPs, which is a key element of the Government's healthcare reforms, has been delayed for well over a year following legal advice which indicated that the State, on competition grounds, could not negotiate fee levels with representative bodies for self-employed professionals.
However, The Irish Timesrevealed last month that the Government was considering establishing an independent body to recommend on fee scales for such professionals which include GPs, pharmacists and dentists, who provide services on contract to the State.
Ms Harney said the proposed body could be similar to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector, which makes recommendations to the Government on top-level pay in the public sector.
The Government had argued over recent months that legal advice identified significant competition and procurement law issues which prevented the State from entering into negotiations with representative bodies for self-employed professionals to develop contracts for services and to determine the associated fee arrangements. Ministers have maintained that these matters are governed by both EU and national competition law.
Ms Harney said the State, through its agencies, could negotiate with representative bodies on the nature of contracts and the level of services to be provided but that it could not, under competition law, negotiate the price of such arrangements.
