Ophthalmic payment changes

It has been confirmed that Primary Care Support England (PCSE) is changing the way that it processes ophthalmic payment forms in particular areas across England.

The changes, which are designed to enable the organisation to provide national, consistent services, are being made in Doncaster, Essex, York, Somerset, Rotherham/Barnsley, SheffieldBedford/Luton and Hertfordshire. 

The changes will take place in March and April, depending on what area you practise in, after which payments in each area stated will transfer from ACE to the PCSE’s ophthalmic payments team.

For contractors in Somerset, after the March cut-off date, GOS 1 claims will move from being individually processed to being processed in bulk and will appear as a total amount of claims paid on statements. Processing GOS 1 claims in this way is now standardised across the rest of England.

It has been confirmed that no changes to the claim form submission dates or payment dates have been made.

AOP clinical director, Dr Peter Hampson, told OT: “The AOP has been assured that practices shouldn’t see any significant day to day changes caused by the switch to batch processing. While batch processing does bring some challenges for identifying any payment issues with GOS 1 forms, this process is used across most of the country and we can understand PCSE wanting to have a standard approach.”

“Members should be assured that although the PCSE process appears to be far more stable, we are continuing to monitor the level of service,” he added.

Practitioners who need to contact PCSE regarding ophthalmic payments should use the online forms that are available on the organisation’s ‘Contact us’ page, or telephone 0333 014 2884.

Image credit: Pixabay