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Overseas Visitor Charging Category

Used to record the chargeable status of a patient using NHS services.

Documentation

About this standard

Publisher
NHS England
Also known as
Also known as OVCC.
Reference code
DCB3017 Amd 72/2017
Publication date
12/04/2018
Status
Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Standard type
Information standards
Show definitions of standard types

Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.

Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.

Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.

Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.

Contact point

Using this standard

Applies to
  • All NHS trusts providing secondary care
  • Primary care providers
  • Non-NHS providers of NHS care
Impacts on
Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
Associated medias
Effective from
12/04/2018

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Demographics
  • Finance
  • Information codes of practice
  • Reference data
Care setting
  • Community health
  • Dentistry
  • GP / Primary care
  • Hospital
  • Maternity
  • Mental health
  • Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies

No known dependencies.

Related standards

Two of the data sets below will be updated on their next releases to reflect the new value, OVERSEAS VISITOR CHARGING CATEGORY, which must be used to record the chargeable status of a patient using NHS services where this information is recorded.

  • Commissioning Data Sets
    The Overseas Visitor Charging Category information standard will consolidate and update the two current methods of recording chargeable status; the attribute used in CDS is Overseas Visitor Status Classification (OVSC).
  • Emergency Care Data Set
    The Overseas Visitor Charging Category information standard will consolidate and update the two current methods of recording chargeable status; while the attribute used is Overseas Visitor Charging Category (OVCC), the values do not differentiate between Decision Pending and Not Known.
  • NHS Data Model and Dictionary

Review Information

Scope
NHS Services
Sponsor

Anstey Loveday, Policy Lead, Visitor and Migrant Cost Recovery, Department of Health and Social Care

Senior Responsible Officer

Tim Brown, Deputy Director, NHS Cost Recovery, Department of Health and Social Care

Business Lead
James Ricketts, Programme Manager, NHS England
Approval date
05/04/2018
Post Implementation review Date
30/04/2019
Legal authority

Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

More information

This information standard sets out the values which must be used in the recording of relevant information by providers of NHS-funded services in scope of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, most recently amended by the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017. These Regulations mandate the identification, charging and recovery of costs from patients who are not entitled to use the NHS for free.

The Regulations require NHS trusts and foundation trusts to record on a patient’s NHS Record when they are an overseas visitor, whether an exemption from charge category applies to that overseas visitor and on what date that assessment of their status in this regard took place. The NHS Record refers to patient records held in patient administration systems and the Summary Care Record application.

In support of this requirement, this new information standard states that the attribute, OVERSEAS VISITOR CHARGING CATEGORY, must be used to record the chargeable status of a patient using NHS services where this information is recorded.

Note that this information standard will consolidate and update the two current methods of recording chargeable status:

  • Commissioning Data Sets (CDS): the attribute used is Overseas Visitor Status Classification (OVSC)
  • Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS): while the attribute used is Overseas Visitor Charging Category (OVCC), the values do not differentiate between Decision Pending and Not Known.

Both CDS and ECDS will be updated on their next releases to reflect the new values.

This standard may be used for local purposes with immediate effect.

Conformance dates

Full conformance will have two separate dates:

  • The update to ECDS is anticipated September 2019
  • The update to CDS is anticipated April 2020.

Users of these data sets will be notified of their actual implementation dates by future Information Standards Notices. Changes to other national Information Standards, Collections and Extractions will be implemented in agreement with their developers.

Page last updated: 04 May 2024