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Guidance

Overseas NHS visitors: framework to support identification and upfront charging

Operational framework on upfront charging, supporting identification and charging of overseas visitors.

Updates to this page

From:
Department of Health and Social Care
Published:
1 August 2018
Last updated:
7 January 2021
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  1. Updated with information on access to healthcare for EU citizens now the Brexit transition period has ended. It reflects the terms of the UK–EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement on reciprocal healthcare arrangements.

  2. Updated to reflect healthcare access for EEA and Swiss visitors until the end of 2020.

  3. Updated with information on determining eligibility of NHS users who are overseas visitors from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway following a no-deal Brexit. Existing content has also been restructured to improve usability.

  4. The framework has been updated throughout. The main change is to emphasise that the longer a patient is expected to remain in the UK, the greater the range of their treatment needs that are likely to be regarded as urgent and therefore not subject to upfront charging (see 6.1). The framework has also been changed to emphasise the importance of clinicians being told by the overseas visitor manager the date on which the patient can reasonably be expected to leave the UK, so that the clinician can decide the urgency of treatment. Four case studies have been added to show this (see 6.3).

  5. First published.

Documents

Upfront charging operational framework to support identification and charging of overseas visitors

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This document supplements the existing guidance on implementing the overseas visitor charging regulations, and has been developed with input from NHS Improvement. It sets out a framework on the practical steps and key considerations necessary for providers to implement cost recovery and meet the legal requirement to charge upfront.

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