Background

Visitors and Migrants aims to support the Department of Health (DoH) Cost Recovery program for secondary care treatment provided to patients that are not eligible to receive free NHS care.

In 2013 a public consultation on the existing charging arrangements for overseas visitors and migrants was launched by the DoH. As a result of this consultation changes have been introduced to determine how overseas visitors and migrants are identified and charged for their healthcare.

Furthermore, an Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) was introduced on 6 April 2015 under the provisions of the Immigration Act 2014 and the Immigration (Health Charge) Order 2015. From 6 April 2015, nationals of countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) 4 who apply for leave to enter the UK for more than six months, or who apply to extend their stay, in most immigration categories will pay the ‘Immigration Health Surcharge’, with the income going to the NHS.

An intrinsic requirement to support the measures detailed above is to provide an indication on Spine of whether or not an NHS patient may be chargeable for NHS care. In support of this, NHS Digital has implemented the functionality to provide this indication via the Summary Care Record Application (SCRa) for a limited set of patients, i.e. those patients who have been identified as having paid the IHS; are exempt from paying or may be chargeable for NHS care.

Development Phases

The DoH Cost Recovery programme consists of five development phases that are outlined as part of the high-level maturity model. This site will primarily focus on Phase 3.