www.independent-practitioner-today.co.uk
November 2022 Issue 147
INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONER TODAY
Self-pay special
The business journal for doctors in private practice
In this issue
How to defuse disharmony
Jane Braithwaite advises on how to soothe tensions that arise in a group practice P12
Why it’s bad to use WhatsApp
Good reasons for avoiding the use of the messaging app in healthcare P26
£12.50
Two feature articles on self-pay patients show you how to attract them and how to get paid n Starting on page 18
Weathering the storm
Simon Bruce of Cavendish Medical shows how to stay calm when faced with market volatility P32
Crackdown on doctors failing to show prices By Robin Stride
Consultants face enforcement action if they continue dragging their feet over supplying data about their private work for public scrutiny. An increasingly tough approach from the competition watchdog will see them publicly ‘named and shamed’ and taken to court if they fail to respond. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is also warning that some independent hospitals can expect the same fate if they fail to respond. It warned it would take enforce ment action against healthcare providers over concerns that pros pective patients were not being given the ‘essential information they need’. David Stewart, the CMA’s execu tive director of markets and merg ers, argued that patients needed the information to make important and sometimes difficult choices about their private healthcare. He announced t he str icter approach to consultants’ repre sentatives, hospital providers and insurers at one of the biggest annual gatherings of the inde In association with
David Stewart of the Competition and Markets Authority pendent healt hcare sector – LaingBuisson’s Pr ivate Acute Healthcare Conference in London. The CMA says some private oper ators have failed to supply prospec tive patients wit h clear and consistent information that would allow them to compare providers. This breaches what is known as the Private Healthcare Order of 2014, a legally binding require ment aimed, among other things, at ensuring patients can access ‘clear and consistent information’ on fees and performance from the organisation set up to publish it: the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). PHIN collates and publicises this data online, allowing prospective patients to compare healthcare
providers by markers such as pric ing, customer satisfaction, infec tion and success rates. But eight years on, amid some controversy about the requirement and its ability to give patients all the information they might find useful about hospitals and consult ants, some providers have not sup plied any data and some doctors do not know what PHIN stands for. Mr Stewart said: ‘We know this isn’t an easy task for hospitals and consultants. However, hundreds of hospitals and thousands of con sultants have already supplied the right information to PHIN. We thank them for working hard to meet this requirement. ‘There are still some providers that have failed to make any pro gress or even attempt it. If they now show a commitment to mak ing the changes needed, we will support them to achieve this, alongside PHIN. However, those that continue to fail to can expect to face enforcement action’. The CMA’s first step would be to name those in breach of the Order and then, it says, to seek the swift est possible way of addressing their non-compliance. ‘This could be through voluntary
commitments from the providers, or, if necessary, the CMA could issue legally binding directions or begin court action.’ Mr Stewart gave a message of thanks at the conference to the ‘thousands of consultants’ who have provided information to PHIN. To those ‘trying to get there but not quite there yet’ he said the CMA wanted to work with them to help. He told the meeting that nobody at the CMA wanted to take enforce ment action, but a significant pro portion of consultants had been ignoring the Order. Updates on this work can be found on the CMA’s private health care market investigation page. The watchdog has approved a new strategic plan proposed by PHIN aimed at ensuring the indus try delivers full compliance with the Order. A letter from the watchdog to the private healthcare sector last month announced it is set to launch enforcement action and the screw is likely to tighten on the unresponsive (see page seven). n You can check out the CMA’s P r ivate H e al t h c a re M a rket Investigation Order 2014 at https://tinyurl.com/ms9mrv9p