Government to fall short on overseas patients costs target

Data from the National Audit Office (NAO), has shown that the government is expected to miss its target of recovering £500 million per year from overseas visitors treated in NHS hospitals.

Around £289 million was paid in foreign patient fees in 2015-16 and the Department of Health has ‘refined its target for 2017-18 to £346.

A large portion of the rise in expenses is due to a new ‘surcharge’ for non-EU patients, however only about half of debts owed are recovered.

Regulations direct that NHS Trusts in England are legally obliged to check whether patients are eligible for free non-emergency NHS treatment and to recover any costs from overseas patients.

Patients from the European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland, are usually covered by agreements such as the EHIC scheme - where the country’s government is billed for the treatment - while those from outside the EEA are invoiced directly.

Nonetheless, the NAO report argued that only half of debts had been recovered from patients from outside the EEA, while only 58 per cent of hospital doctors were aware that some people should be charged for using NHS’ services.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "Hospital trusts remain some way from complying in full with the requirement to charge and recover the cost of treating overseas visitors.

“If current trends continue and the charging rules remain the same, the department will not achieve its ambition of recovering up to £500m of overseas visitor income a year by 2017-18."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "This government was the first to put in place measures to ensure the NHS isn't abused, and as this report finds, we are making very good progress - the amount of income recovered has already more than trebled in three years to £289 million.

"We consulted earlier this year on extending the charging of migrants and visitors using the NHS to other areas of healthcare.

"We will set out further steps in due course to ensure we deliver on our objective to recover £500 million a year by the middle of this parliament."