New report finds immigration health surcharge has generated £164 million for NHS
The National Audit Office (NAO) last week released a report on the work of the Department of Health to increase the amount charged and recovered for treating overseas visitors not entitled to free NHS treatment.
As the NAO report notes, the Department had set an "ambitious" target of recovering up to £500 million a year for treating overseas visitors by 2017-18.
According to the report, that target is set to be missed as current trends and data indicate that, within the existing cost recovery rules, the amount charged is forecast to be £346 million in 2017-18.
The NAO did find, however, that the new immigration health surcharge introduced by the Home Office in April 2015 has lead to a large increase in the amount charged and recovered. The surcharge is payable by most students and temporary migrants from outside the EEA.
The report says that the total amount of income identified and charged for has almost trebled from £97 million in 2013-14 to £289 million in 2015-16, with £164 million of the increase being generated by the immigration health surcharge.
Significant variation was found in the amount of income that NHS trusts identify, with just ten trusts, all in London, accounting for half of the total amount charged to overseas visitors in 2015-16.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the NAO found that eight NHS trusts failed to charge migrant patients anything at all.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the Government is preparing to send in teams of expert 'debt collectors' into such trusts, and a further crackdown is planned to in a bid to drive up the amount of money collected.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said upon releasing the report: "Hospital trusts remain some way from complying in full with the requirement to charge and recover the cost of treating overseas visitors. In the past two years, the amounts charged and amounts actually recovered have increased. Much of this increase is the result of changes to the charging rules. If current trends continue and the charging rules remain the same, the Department will not achieve its ambition of recovering up to £500 million of overseas visitor income a year by 2017-18 and faces a potential shortfall in the region of £150 million."