Overseas Visitor Charging Category
Used to record the chargeable status of a patient using NHS services.
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
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- 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
- NHS Visitor and Migrant Cost Recovery programme Further guidance is published by the Department of Health and Social Care.
- NHS Visitor and Migrant Cost Recovery programme
- 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 and related standards
- 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
- Commissioning Data Sets
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 basis and endorsements
- 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