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Practices to have CQC fees reimbursed in full for first time ever

The GPC has negotiated for practices to have their full CQC fees reimbursed, in a significant win for the BMA.

An average size practice currently pays around £2,500 in CQC fees, rising to £4,800 next year.

Under the agreement, practices will be required to submit their paid invoice to NHS England or their CCG and will receive full reimbursement.

This will be separate to the global sum, the GPC said, but it will also likely lead a slight reduction in the global sum, as last year’s contract included £15m to pay for the increase in fees.

Any reduction will be more than offset by other changes announced in the contract, however, including £156.7m being put into core funding from the scrapping of the unplanned admissions DES.

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CQC fees have proved controversial in the past, with changes in legislation leading to huge increase in fees over the past two years.

The DH last year agreed to cover the 250% increase in fees last year, but today’s announcement means practices’ full CQC fees will be covered for the first time ever.

In his letter to the profession, Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: ‘We have secured, for the first time, full reimbursement of practices’ total CQC fees. Although the GP Forward View suggested compensating practices for future CQC fee increases, we have gone further and negotiated that the entire CQC practice fee will be reimbursed for 2017-18.

‘This means that CQCs recently announced exorbitant fees rises will not impact on practices, since the total CQC cost will be paid for by NHS England

‘Unlike last year, this funding will not be added into global sum, and will therefore not be weighted with the Carr-Hill formula. A system of direct reimbursement will be introduced whereby practices will submit their paid invoices to NHS England or their CCG (under delegated commissioning) and will receive full reimbursement of their actual costs.’

The full cost of CQC fees

Number of registered patients 2015/16 fee 2016/17 fee 2017/18 fee
Up to 5,000 £616 £2,187 £4,111
5,001 to 10,000 £725 £2,574 £4,839
10,001 to 15,000 £839 £2,978 £5,599
More than 15,000 £948 £3,365 £6,327