NHS Excess Treatment Costs

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CRN Wessex Guidance for SC ETC Applications 2019_20 (0.07 MB)

CRN Wessex ETC Application Form 2019_20_SpecComm (0.07 MB)

NHS excess treatment costs

Confirmation of new arrangements for funding the reimbursement of CCG excess treatment

The recent NHS England consultation, ‘Supporting research in the NHS’, set out proposals on how NHS England, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), The Department of Health and Social Care and the Health Research Authority, working together, will implement changes to simplify arrangements for NHS research proposals and cut delays. Key components of the proposals are new arrangements to simplify and streamline the process for the reimbursement of excess treatment costs (ETCs) in non-commercial research. The NIHR Clinical Research Network is supporting the development of the operational arrangements to manage ETC payments from a central fund on behalf of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) from 1 October 2018, for a six month trial period.

Transition arrangements for existing studies and CCG commitments

CCG chief finance officers were contacted by NHS England on Tuesday 14 August to ascertain existing commitments for ETCs in order to transfer the per patient payment mechanism to the central fund from 1 October 2018. This information will be used to calculate the appropriate reimbursement for providers from the ETC CCG central fund for patient recruitment from 1 October 2018 on a per patient basis.

CRN Wessex will administer and reimburse ETCs incurred up to an including 30 September 2018 on behalf of the local CCGs and specialised commissioning in Wessex as part of the scheme it has administered since April 2014.

Assessment of excess treatment costs from 1 October 2018

The lead network for non-commercial studies will be responsible for assessing the ETCs associated with a study in partnership with the chief investigator, sponsor and commissioners. The agreed per patient cost will be shared on the central portfolio management system (CPMS).

Completion of a schedule of events cost attribution tool (SoECAT) by the study sponsor/CI is the entry point into the national ETC process. The SoECAT must be signed off by the lead network AcoRD specialist. Please contact studysupport.crnwessex@nihr.ac.uk to request support from one of our three AcoRD specialists. A SoECAT is required for:

New calls for single stage applications issued after 1 October 2018
Invitations to submit the second and final stage of an application where the invitation is issued after 1 October 2018. The call for the first stage application may have been issued prior to 1 October.

Specialised Commissioning

Specialised commissioning is retaining current arrangements for existing studies already recruiting or which received funding approval prior to 1st October 2018 and will therefore not look to revisit historic funding agreements. The new arrangements for specialised commissioning study ETC payments will only apply to studies newly funded on or after 1 October 2018.

The CRN Wessex managed fund for excess treatment costs will continue for existing studies with specialised commissioning ETCs that are already recruiting or which received funding approval prior to 1st October. Please refer to the guidance document for information about making and application and requesting reimbursement.

For further information regarding the national ETCs process, please visit the NIHR website.