March 2018 Issue 99 £12.50
www.independent-practitioner-today.co.uk
Get ready for the new data laws
INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONER TODAY
Two articles this month show you how to prepare for the EU General Data Protection Regulation See pages 20-27
The business journal for doctors in private practice
In this issue
The robots are coming...
... but we shouldn’t be too perturbed by the boom in medical consultation apps P14
Watchdog inspections
How you can prepare for a happy result in the new Care Quality Commission regime for private doctors P29
Can you really afford your retirement bucket list?
If you want to make your retirement dreams a reality, you need to start planning now P48
Fee publication fiasco By Robin Stride A new age of transparency for consultants’ private fees was ushered in this month amid concerns over its accuracy and practicality. Some specialists also have fears about the workload and possible confusion the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) demands will cause their administrative teams. And there are suspicions that some consultants, especially solo practitioners in specialties with fewer regular links to private hospitals, will be unaware of the new requirements until they read this story. What consultants must do, under Article 22.2 of the CMA Order, arising from its long-running inquiry into private healthcare, is to send patients written fee information before outpatient consultation (operative by 31 December 2017) and prior to further tests or treatment – by the end of last month. Letters need CMA approval, but to make it easier for doctors and providers, a team – led by BMI general counsel and company secretary Catherine Vickery – drew up a series of template letters covering the costs of a patient’s care following on from a consultation. These have been endorsed by the competition watchdog and late In association with
last month they were put onto the Private Healthcare Informa tion Network (PHIN) website. Providers are required to ensure their consultants’ fee information is always given by a letter from the specialist. This must also signpost a patient to PHIN’s website to find what the CMA hopes will ultimately be useful information on the quality of hospitals’ and consultants’ performance. Hospitals may use these template letters or their own version, so long as they have been signed off by the authority. Some have disregarded the template letters and produced their own, meaning a consultant with practising privileges in several hospitals in London, for example, must use a variety of letters depending on where the patient is seen. The template letters comprise initial consultation; post-consultation – all patients, further tests; post-consultation for non-private medically insured patients’ treatment; post-consultation for insured patients’ treatment; plus, a signposting text for those creating their own fee letters. A PHIN spokesperson said: ‘We welcome this as a positive step in improving transparency in private healthcare. ‘The letters sent out from the
end of February help bring greater transparency in pricing and also direct patients to PHIN’s website, enabling them to find information about the hospital providing their care and compare with other hospitals in the local area.’ A CMA spokesperson told Indep endent Practitioner Today: ‘It is great that the Private Healthcare Informa tion Network has made these letter templates available for hospitals. ‘These new templates will ensure that patients are able to make decisions confidently, with full knowledge of their treatment and its cost. This should mean fewer disputes over charges, as patients should be clearer about the total cost of treatment.’ It advised any consultant whose hospital group has not provided them with an approved template to ask it to do so ‘straight away’. Independent healthcare management consultant Rosemary Hittinger, an associate adviser to
Rosemary Hittinger, FIPO adviser the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations (FIPO), commented: ‘Do I have sympathy for PAs. I can see everybody going mad, making sure they’ve sent the right letter for the right hospital.’ She said this was one of the issues FIPO had raised, as it was ‘very concerned’ the fees clarity drive would make things increasingly complex for consultants and patients. ➱ continued on page 3
AIHO: it’s off from work we go . . .
Independent practitioners are to lose an influential voice in their marketing armoury – the Association of Independent Healthcare Organisations (AIHO) has dropped the bombshell that it is shutting up shop with the loss of five jobs. Xxxxx It revealed a surprise plan for its role to be taken on from June by a trade association representing independent sector providers of NHS clinical services. n Read the full story on page 3