NHS National Tariff Payment System 2016/17: a consultation document

This year’s national tariff proposals aim to give providers of NHS services the space to restore financial balance and support providers and commissioners to make ambitious longer term plans for their local health economies.

We believe these proposals will help providers and commissioners to work together to manage demand and deliver services more efficiently.

We’d like to thank everyone who has given their time to help shape our proposals. Your feedback has allowed us to get to this point.

What we’re consulting on

Monitor and NHS England are interested in hearing your views on:

• the approach to setting prices for 2016/17
• the impact of the proposed changes to the national tariff
• the proposals for local payment arrangements
• the approach to enforcing the national tariff

Who can take part?

We welcome responses from anyone interested in the NHS payment system and encourage you to comment on any of our proposals in the consultation.

However, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 provides for a specific process that allows clinical commissioning groups and ‘relevant providers’ to object to the method for determining national prices. Relevant providers include: NHS foundation trusts, NHS trusts, licensed independent providers, and unlicensed independent providers who provide NHS services where there is a proposed national price.

You can find out more in Annex A2 of the consultation document about the objection process and how we will calculate any objection percentages.

Supporting documents

We’ve also published a number of supporting documents that can be read alongside our proposals for the 2016/17 national tariff:

Guidance on locally determined prices

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.

Guidance on mental health currencies and payments

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.

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 2016/17.

Draft 2016/17 guidance for commissioners on the marginal rate emergency rule and 30-day readmission

Guidance to support commissioners to reinvest retained funds from the marginal rate emergency rule and the 30-day readmission rule.