By Tash Shifrin
25 February 2010
Hospital trusts fear they could lose 7% of their income because of changes to the NHS treatments tariff.
The delayed tariff for 2010/11 was published by the Department of Health on February 22. It freezes the standard prices acute trusts will receive for treatments.
It also includes the expected measures aimed at reducing demand for hospital operations. Acute trusts will receive just 30% of tariff rates for any unplanned activity above a set baseline. The DoH’s aim is to unofficially cap activity levels by making it uneconomic to provide extra operations.
But Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said other elements of the new tariff would hit hospital income, even before the activity cap came into play.
She told Public Finance: ‘There’s a possibility of losing up to 7% because of the other changes to day-case rates and other stuff.’ Trusts were ‘doing the sums’ now that the complex tariff documentation had been published, she said.
Slipman also noted the ‘big issue’ of the baseline for the activity cap. Under the new tariff, the 30% ‘marginal rate’ will be paid for emergency admissions to hospital above a baseline set at the value of contracted activity in 2008/09, not 2009/10.
Slipman said this had effectively turned back the clock to activity levels before the past year’s growth. ‘Clearly the DoH is putting all the risks on to providers. It’s going to make the situation extremely uncomfortable.’
Chris Calkin, spokesman for the Healthcare Financial Management Association, added that trusts and primary care trusts were waiting for the DoH to publish its standard contract by the March 15 deadline, although an initial agreement was expected on February 26.
He told PF: ‘We know that there will be some significant changes relating to the delivery of key targets.’ These were expected to include financial penalty measures. Calkin added: ‘These will need to be modelled through to assess the impact. At this stage I am concerned that some health economies will miss the deadline for contract sign of March 15.’
25 February 2010
Hospital trusts fear they could lose 7% of their income because of changes to the NHS treatments tariff.
The delayed tariff for 2010/11 was published by the Department of Health on February 22. It freezes the standard prices acute trusts will receive for treatments.
It also includes the expected measures aimed at reducing demand for hospital operations. Acute trusts will receive just 30% of tariff rates for any unplanned activity above a set baseline. The DoH’s aim is to unofficially cap activity levels by making it uneconomic to provide extra operations.
But Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said other elements of the new tariff would hit hospital income, even before the activity cap came into play.
She told Public Finance: ‘There’s a possibility of losing up to 7% because of the other changes to day-case rates and other stuff.’ Trusts were ‘doing the sums’ now that the complex tariff documentation had been published, she said.
Slipman also noted the ‘big issue’ of the baseline for the activity cap. Under the new tariff, the 30% ‘marginal rate’ will be paid for emergency admissions to hospital above a baseline set at the value of contracted activity in 2008/09, not 2009/10.
Slipman said this had effectively turned back the clock to activity levels before the past year’s growth. ‘Clearly the DoH is putting all the risks on to providers. It’s going to make the situation extremely uncomfortable.’
Chris Calkin, spokesman for the Healthcare Financial Management Association, added that trusts and primary care trusts were waiting for the DoH to publish its standard contract by the March 15 deadline, although an initial agreement was expected on February 26.
He told PF: ‘We know that there will be some significant changes relating to the delivery of key targets.’ These were expected to include financial penalty measures. Calkin added: ‘These will need to be modelled through to assess the impact. At this stage I am concerned that some health economies will miss the deadline for contract sign of March 15.’
