News / Stevens unveils technical tariff

There will be a new payment mechanism for medical technical innovations such as devices or apps that have been shown to save costs or help patients with supported management, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said.

Speaking at the NHS Confederation annual conference last month, Mr Stevens said the new tariff introduced in 2017/18 would ‘diffuse’ innovations more quickly and remove the need for local price negotiations. Hinting at pass-through arrangements similar to those for high-cost drugs and devices, he said the tariff would guarantee automatic reimbursement when an approved innovation was used.

NHS England would bulk purchase the technologies to get the best value, he added.

In a wide-ranging speech ahead of the EU referendum, he warned that the NHS should not assume it will receive extra funding beyond that in the spending review.

‘I do not believe it would be prudent for us to assume any additional NHS funding over the next several years, not least because there is a strong argument that, were extra funding to be available, frankly we should be arguing that it should be going to social care,’ he said.

The NHS faced three challenges this year. It no longer had ‘the luxury of time’ implementing the Carter recommendations.

The same was true for clinical commissioning groups and RightCare. The NHS must deliver key national priorities such as the forward view and ‘land’ the sustainability and transformation plan (STP) process.

Online this month

 Matthew Cripps, national director NHS RightCare, blogs about emerging successes in the first wave of clinical commissioning groups involved in RightCare and the plans to roll it out to the rest of England.

Healthcare Costing for Value Institute members can access videos of speeches from June’s value masterclass. Go to the HC4V section of the HFMA website and click on ‘resources’.