Highlights: Economic model & price benchmarking

Price Benchmarking forms a core part of the NJR and its services. Although available to all relevant NHS England Trusts, NHS Wales Health Boards, Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts (HSC), its availability depends upon the NJR receiving implant pricing data from procurement organisations.  The implant and implant price is matched to procedures held in the NJR where the same implant has been used. 

One of the key benefits of the service is the ability to determine variations in the prices paid for implants throughout the NHS. 

Price Benchmarking comprises two services, INFORM and EMBED, both of which are included in the annual subscription to the NJR but are, however, only available to NHS Trusts and Health Boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  INFORM and EMBED reports are available to senior management and procurement teams via NJR Management Feedback, with reports also being available to surgeons via NJR Clinician Feedback.

For further information about the content of each report and how they benefit stakeholders please visit the NJR Implant Price Benchmarking page on the NJR website.

As at 31 March 2019, 92 NHS England Trusts, 6 NHS Wales Health Boards, and 2 Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts (HSC) were providing pricing data to the NJR.

The NJR is funded by subscriptions from NHS Trusts, Health Boards, and by independent sector health companies.  This model replaced the previous model of raising a levy against the cost of implants and was introduced to reduce the cost of the NJR to the NHS and ensure a fair and proportionate contribution from other key stakeholders, including the orthopaedic device industry.

Subscriptions are based on the number of procedures submitted to the NJR or, if higher, the number of procedures recorded on the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service in England or the Patient Episode Database Wales (PEDW) service in Wales.  The previous complete financial year’s submissions are used to calculate the subscription for the next financial year.

The process for invoicing and payment of subscriptions is now well-established in Trusts and Health Boards, and the issues associated with late, or non- payment of subscriptions have largely disappeared.   

The current subscription rate is £16.22 per procedure (net £13.52) in England and Wales and £17.28 per procedure (net £14.40) in Northern Ireland.

Services

Included in the subscription is access to a number of services, including reporting services such as NJR Clinician Feedback and NJR Management Feedback.   NJR Clinician Feedback is a secure online service that enables surgeons to compare their clinical practice, including outcomes, with that of their peers at a local and national level.  NJR Management Feedback is aimed at Trust, Health Board, Health and Social Care Trusts (HSC), Company, and hospital management, and includes an annual report on activity and outcomes, the Annual Clinical Report (ACR), and price benchmarking reports.  Details of these services are provided in the section ‘NJR Feedback Services’.