Health and Social Care Act 2012

Health and Social Care Act 2012

2012 CHAPTER 7

Commentary on Sections

Part 3 - Regulation of Health and Adult Social Care Services

Chapter 4 – Pricing

Section 119 - Consultation: further provision

883. Subsection (1) of this section places a duty on Monitor and the NHS Commissioning Board, in ensuring that the prices set under the previous section represent fair reimbursement for providers of services, to have regard to the differential costs incurred by providers who treat different types of patient and differences between providers with respect to the range of services they provide. The effect of this is to require Monitor and the Board to make provision for adjustments in the prices payable under the national tariff, or within the rules for determining the prices payable locally, to take account of variations in clinical complexity.

884. Subsections (2) and (3) of this section state that when developing standard currencies or units of service to be included in the national tariff for determining the prices payable, or in any rules governing local prices, the Board and Monitor must act with a view to securing standardisation of currencies across England.

885. Subsection (4) provides that when the Board and Monitor are developing standard currencies or units of service for determining the prices payable, they must consider whether such standardisation will have any significant adverse impact on the provision of health care services for the NHS.