Heartbeat: Overseas visitors – to pay or not to pay?

December 6, 2018

At the heart of the NHS and that of every trust across the country is the core principle that healthcare is available for everyone and free at the point of use. This notion has stood true since the establishment of the NHS in 1948, however with the release of new legislation; trusts are now increasingly obligated to recoup costs from patients considered as overseas visitors.

In 2015, new legislation came in to force which placed a legal obligation on all Trusts to charge and attempt to recover charges from overseas visitors using NHS services. Overseas visitors who need require healthcare whilst in England are often not entitled to free healthcare from the National Health Service. Equally a person who does not normally live in the UK is defined as an overseas visitor and legislation dictates that charges must apply to treatment provided, unless an exemption applies.

Here at SWBH, to help manage this process we have our very own overseas visitors team who are the friendly faces tasked with assessing patients eligibility for free healthcare. The team includes Saleem Mohammed, Overseas Visitors Manager and Overseas Visitors Officers, Kiran Virk and Genevieve Southall.

To find out more about the new process, Heartbeat caught up with Saleem.

“Overseas visitors who are seeking healthcare whilst in the UK may be interviewed by one of my team, who will ask for documentation in order to evidence lawful and current residence in the UK,” said Saleem.

“This evidence entitles them to use the NHS free of charge. Documents we commonly request include passports, visa, utility bills, European Health Insurance Card, payslips, proof of benefits or council tax bill.”

Where a patient is visiting England and is not entitled to free NHS healthcare, medical treatment will only be provided without advance payment where it is deemed clinically urgent or immediately necessary. For all immediately necessary or urgent treatment received, patients will be issued an invoice once treatment has concluded. All non-urgent treatment must be paid for in advance.

The overseas visitors team has been in place since mid-August and to date have followed up 600 outstanding queries. In doing so they have closed 28 cases as patients were proven to be eligible and this reduced the debt owed to the Trust by over £108K.

Saleem added: “Focus for our team isn’t simply to ensure all overseas patients are invoiced, we’re also here to help our colleagues navigate the often confusing rules and regulations on the charging policies, ensuring that eligible patients get the care they deserve quickly and that the in-eligible are invoiced accordingly.

“We are currently offering training in ‘patient points of entry’ such as AMU and the emergency departments, our largest point of entry will be targeted in the next few weeks.”

If you work in an area that registers or books in patients please contact the team to find out more about the overseas visitors regulations on 0121 507 3420 or email: swb-tr.swbhoverseasvisitors@nhs.net