Debt Recovery - The process for the Compliance Unit

One of the Supplementary Directions with which the Compliance Unit is tasked by the Secretary of State is that of debt recovery, where the patient has been shown to be subject to charges. This is a significant part of the Compliance Unit operation and ensures that the National Health Service recovers money owed to it by those who abuse the system of prescription charges.

Where it has been identified that a debt from the patient is payable, the case is passed to the Debt Recovery Section. Established within this section is a full procedure for recovery of debt, allowing the monitoring and progression of a case through the recovery process starting with the initial request for payment, through to County Court action where a patient fails to pay.

Upon receipt of the request for payment, a patient can either pay the amount due in full or request to pay in instalments. If payment is made in full, no further action is taken. The patient details do, however, remain on the computer system. Should they re-offend, there is a possibility of criminal prosecution.

If an instalment arrangement is agreed, payments are monitored and where the agreement falls into arrears, patients are issued with reminders of their obligation to pay and may possibly face further court action.

Occasionally, patients fail to pay. They either ignore requests for payment or continue to deny liability. These cases are pursued through the recovery process and patients are issued with a series of letters starting with a Final Notice and ending with a County Court Summons. All court fees incurred are added to the debt and normal County Court procedures are followed from this point. The progression of a case through the County Court process is determined by the staff in debt recovery who instruct the court in each action of the process. Where judgement is obtained, the payments are processed by the PPA as normal. Where payments are not made under the terms of a judgement order, the judgement can be enforced. In order to minimise the cost of enforcement fees, every effort is made to establish the defendant's circumstances and to prompt payment before deciding the appropriate enforcement method for recovery of the debt.

Increasingly, the Debt Recovery Section is required to provide written evidence for court cases. It is a tribute to the professionalism of the officers within the debt recovery section that this written evidence is accepted by the courts and is successful in obtaining judgements without the need for actual attendance at court.

Some cases are for a small amount and do not warrant procedure to court action as that would be wasteful of resources. In these cases, caution letters are issued and the patient remains on file. The caution letter advises the patient that no further action will be taken in this case, but should the patient come to the attention of the Compliance Unit in the future, further action will be taken.

By contrast, some debts are for extremely large amounts. The Debt Recovery Section has three cases where the debt has amounted to over £1000. It is likely that, especially in the cases where patients have asked for pre-payment certificates to be backdated, the actual debt is far greater than that realised.

The Debt Recovery Section intends to utilise scanner technology, which will enable them to quickly extract prescriptions for specific patients. This will enable the debt, where appropriate, to be substantially increased. This will result in a more effective use of scarce resources as well as resulting in a higher amount of monies recovered for the Health Service.

The Debt Recovery Section therefore provides an important service to the Compliance Unit and to the NHS as a whole. As well as the obvious financial return, the section also produces an important preventative effect. In fact, the section often receives money from people who have not been the subject of any enquiry by the Unit!

It is envisaged that as the level of check increases, the monies recovered will increase proportionally. However, it is hoped that the publicity generated by the work of the Unit will lead to a reduction in false claims and will therefore ensure that money for patient care is properly utilised.

Prescription Penalty Charge