Department bulks up cost recovery team as it advances EU exit preparations

30 September 2019 Seamus Ward

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Matt HancockThe Department of Health and Social Care said it would back the expansion of the team, set up last year, with £1m in extra funding.

The team will work with existing trust cost-recovery managers to ease the burden on local staff by providing additional time and resources to identify patients who should be charged. It will also ensure the charging rules are understood and applied consistently.

The Department insisted this included making clear that urgent treatment should never be withheld. Care that clinicians say should not wait until a visitor’s departure from the UK should be given, and recovery of charges can take place after the care has been provided, it said. Where treatment is non-urgent and can wait until they leave the UK, it must not be provided unless fully paid for in advance.

The expanded central team will help improve the reporting of income and debt collection, so debts are paid in full. Its remit will also include helping the NHS understand and implement charging rules for European Economic Area visitors after Brexit. EEA nationals living lawfully in the UK after Brexit will be able to continue using the NHS as they do now.

The Department said more than £1.3bn had been recovered from overseas patients since 2015, but significant unpaid debt remained.

Mr Hancock said it was ‘only fair’ to ask overseas visitors to pay their way. ‘We’re backing the NHS and giving it the support and tools it needs to ensure the rules are applied fairly and consistently. This drive will help recoup millions in unclaimed funds for our NHS, which can go back into frontline patient care, so the NHS can be there for all of us when we need it most.’

Jason Dorsett, chief finance officer at Oxford University Hospital Foundation Trust, said it had received ‘huge support’ from the overseas visitors improvement team. ‘We have learnt alternative ways to identify chargeable overseas patients. The implementation of digital tools has reduced the administrative burden on previous methods resulting in a rise of income and cash recovery.’