NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) have published the 2020 national tariff engagement document. Our On The Day Briefing summarises the key points from the plan, and includes NHS Providers’ view on the proposals.

The main proposals for the 2020/21 national tariff payment system (NTPS) include:

• Extending the blended payment approach into outpatients, maternity, and adult critical care. Like existing approaches for mental health and emergency care, NHSE/I want to introduce a combination of ‘intelligent fixed payments’, alongside elements that account for variable activity, risk-sharing and outcomes-based payments
• Establishing a single-year tariff for 2020/21
• Rolling over price relativities from 2019/20 into 2020/21. This is intended to enable more focus on other payment systems, such as blended payment models
• A requirement in the standard contract for providers and commissioners to have a “meaningful system collaboration and financial management agreement”, including open book accounting
• Updating best practice tariffs (BPTs) for day cases, acute stroke care, fragility hip fractures, and major trauma. NHSE/I have also proposed the introduction of a new BPT for adult asthma care
• Making changes to top-up payments for specialised orthopaedic services, and incorporating the cost of chemotherapy supportive drugs into chemotherapy delivery tariffs
• No adjustments are proposed for the topslice to the tariff that funds the overhead costs of Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL)
• NHSE/I are also considering reviewing the market forces factor (MFF). This follows the significant update to the MFF that was made in the 2019/20 NTPS