Consultation outcome

National tariff payment system 2015/16: a consultation notice

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

Detail of outcome

Monitor’s analysis shows that around 13% of clinical commissioning groups, 37% of relevant providers by number, and 75% of relevant providers by share of supply, objected to the proposed method for determining national prices for NHS services.

As the share of total tariff income received by the objecting providers exceeds 51%, the National Tariff cannot be introduced in its current form at this stage and its implementation will be delayed.

Next steps

Monitor and NHS England are now considering the feedback received from the consultation and possible next steps, in the context of what the legislation permits in the event that an objection threshold is breached.

Read Monitor’s full statement on the national tariff payment system 2015/16 consultation.


Original consultation

Summary

Proposals for the 2015/16 national tariff payment system, as agreed by Monitor and NHS England.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

This consultation notice sets out the proposed price lists and payment rules for NHS services for 2015/16 and will support NHS healthcare commissioners and providers to improve the quality and efficiency of care for patients.

Monitor and NHS England previously consulted NHS organisations about how the payment system works and listened to their feedback.

To coincide with the launch of the consultation Monitor and NHS have updated their leaflet, which explains how the NHS payment system helps to improve care for patients.

What’s being proposed

The National Tariff is a practical package of measures that offers a realistic balance between the need for NHS providers to maintain quality services and the ability of commissioners to pay for them.

Among the range incentives and signals for NHS providers and commissioners to manage demand and deliver against national standards are 3 specific changes for 2015/16:

  • expecting acute providers to achieve efficiency improvements of 3.8%
  • introducing a new price-setting rule for specialised services
  • revising the marginal rate rule for emergency admissions

Who can take part

Monitor welcomes responses from anyone interested in the NHS payment system and encourages comment on any of the proposals in the consultation notice.

However, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 provides for a specific process under which clinical commissioning groups and ‘relevant providers’ (NHS foundation trusts; licensed independent providers; NHS trusts and unlicensed independent providers who provide NHS services where there is a proposed national price) may object to the method for determining national prices.

You can find out more in Annex B of the consultation document about the objection process and how Monitor will calculate any objection percentages.

The consultation period ends immediately before midnight at the end of Wednesday 24 December 2014.

Supporting documents

A number of supporting documents will help your reading of the ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System’:

A user guide to ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System’

This handy guide explains all of the different elements of the proposed 2015/16 National Tariff and its supporting documents

Impact assessment for the proposals set out in the ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System: A consultation notice’

This compares the proposals for the ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System’ to the ‘2014/15 National Tariff Payment System’.

Enforcement of the national tariff for 2015/16

Explains how Monitor and its regulatory partners will enforce the national tariff on commissioners and providers.

Guidance on locally determined prices for 2015/16

How to submit local variations and local prices to Monitor, and how to agree to or apply for a local modification to a national price.

In addition to the guidance, there are also a set of associated templates:

Guidance on mental health currencies and payment (plus Excel annexes)

Describes how providers can use the adult mental health currencies, and how they can be used by commissioners and providers as the basis for setting local prices. The guidance contains the following annexes:

Maternity pathway payment system: guidance for NHS providers and commissioners

Outlines which services are included in the maternity pathway payment and explains how to implement the payment system.

A guide to the Market Forces Factor

Provides information on the calculation and application of the Market Forces Factor, a nationally determined variation to the national price, in 2015/16.

The national tariff information workbook

Provides operational information for implementing the 2015/16 national tariff.

Supporting innovation in the NHS with local payment arrangements

How NHS providers and commissioners can use local payment arrangements to support service improvement and reconfiguration.

Worked example to Default 50:50 gain and loss sharing rule

Provides a worked example to applying the Default 50:50 default gain and loss sharing rule calculation outlined in Section 8 of the ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System: A consultation notice’.

A model for non-mandatory prices

Contains the non-mandatory prices model and price list for the ‘2015/16 National Tariff Payment System: A consultation notice’

Draft local payment grouper 2015/16

The HRG4 2015/16 Consultation Grouper from he Health and Social Care Information Centre should be used to group data and derive HRGs, support data quality, conduct what-if-modelling, and assess local reimbursement that will be received under the national tariff for the 2015/16 financial year.

Documents

Annex 1a: Glossary

Annex 5a: National prices

Annex 5b: Data cleansing method

Annex 5d: APC tariff model

Annex 5e: Outpatient procedures (OPROC) model

Annex 5f: Outpatient attendances (OPATT) model

Annex 5h: Unbundled services model

Annex 5i: Maternity pathway model

Annex 5j: Other national prices model

Annex 6a: Market Forces Factor payment values

Non-mandatory prices model

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August, September and October 2015 enquiries

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email publications@dhsc.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Updates to this page

Published 26 November 2014
Last updated 23 June 2016 + show all updates
  1. Added August-October 2015 enquiries.

  2. Monitor has now completed its analysis of responses to the statutory consultation.

  3. First published.

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