01 March 2016
Dear colleague
Notification of changes to treatment fees
I am writing to let you know that HFEA treatment fees will change from 1 April 2016. This increase in fees, which is the first since 2006, is necessary to cover the current cost of regulation. The new fees will be:
- £80 for each chargeable IVF treatment (an increase from the current fee of £75)
- No elective single embryo treatment (eSET) discount
All other fees remain unchanged and details are on our website. The definition of chargeable treatments has not changed. These are set out in a previous Chair’s letter.
We have made many efficiencies over the past few years and we will continue to keep our costs as low as possible.
Removing the eSET discount
The eSET discount was introduced in 2011 to encourage single embryo transfer and decrease the incidence of multiple births. Since then there has been a large increase in eSET and a decline in the multiple birth rate. We know that eSET is now firmly embedded as good clinical practice in the right patients. As such, the discount does not act as a financial incentive to carry out eSET. We have therefore decided that it is time to remove the discount and take the opportunity to simplify our systems.
It is still vitally important that you continue to reduce your multiple birth rate to the 10% target. We will continue to monitor this through inspection and ongoing monitoring of your performance and will continue to take any regulatory action that is necessary.
Implementation
All embryo transfers (or mixing of eggs and sperm where there is no fertilisation) that take place on or after 1 April 2016 qualify for the new fee and will be charged at £80.
Following information published in our December and January editions of Clinic Focus, you should already be aware of this change and be preparing for it. Please ensure forms for treatments in March are submitted by the end of March. Forms that are unavoidably submitted late will be charged at the treatment fee applicable at the time of treatment.
Please do continue to notify us of any corrections. However, from 1 April 2016, we will not be able to make corrections to treatment fees charged for March or earlier. This means that if you failed to notify us that the original transfer was eSET and have been charged for subsequent transfers, when you correct the notification we will not refund fees charged for subsequent transfers before 1 April. Nor will we charge you if you change a notification from the original transfer being eSET, even though subsequent transfers before 1 April will not have been charged.
If you have any queries about the changes, please contact either your Inspector or the Finance team on 020 7291 8297/8945/8296 or finance@hfea.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Sally Cheshire
Chair, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
Page last updated: 03 March 2016