Ophthalmic Services

(asked on 8th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2019 to Question 231467 on Ophthalmic Services, whether an assessment has been made of the potential effect of the introduction of the 2019/2020 NHS Tariff on the ability of clinicians to take into account patients’ wishes for concomitant treatment.


Answered by
Seema Kennedy Portrait
Seema Kennedy
This question was answered on 12th April 2019

For the 2017/19 national tariff (which was set for two years), the prices for BZ91 were manually increased above the initially modelled level (based on 2014/15 reference costs) following feedback from the ophthalmology Expert Working Group (EWG). For 2019/20, the EWG recommended that the prices for BZ91 should not be increased and should remain as modelled (based on 2016/17 reference costs).

The EWG also confirmed that minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) and cataract activity are commonly done together and it would not usually be in the patient’s best interest to do them separately. The EWG advised that BZ91 was appropriate for combined MIGS and cataract activity – a MIGS procedure plus a cataract procedure should not receive over twice as much as either procedure alone.

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