Immediate – Contact details should be sent to SMA by 31 October.
Increase in tariff charges
1. The Contract between Cabinet Office and Health Assured – the scheme medical adviser - allows for charges to be increased by the Retail Price Index (RPI) with effect from 1 July, based on the previous 12 months indexation. For the 12 months to 1 July 2016, RPI was 1.8% and this is, therefore, the increase to be applied across the medical adviser’s tariff for 2016/17. We apologise that this year announcement of the increase has been delayed; it will be applied to orders submitted to the medical adviser on or after 1 August 2016.
2. The increase is applied to individual products on the tariff, a copy of which is included in the Annex to this EPN.
Extended helpdesk opening hours
3. Health Assured have agreed to extend the operating hours of its dedicated helpdesk. The working hours are now operating between 10:00 and 16:00, Monday to Friday. The contact number for the helpdesk is 0345 601 1994.
Invoicing points of contact
4. Users of the scheme medical advice framework pay Health Assured direct for the services provided on invoices raised by the company. Health Assured often finds it needs to query, check, sometimes amend or otherwise chase payment on their invoices and would like a named point of contact, telephone number and or e-mail address. You should consider who might be the contact or contacts for this purpose in your organisation. Once you have established a contact, send the details to IHR@healthassured.co.uk. Health Assured will collate the contact details and endeavour to keep them up to date with your help. Any questions you may have about this request can also be addressed in the first instance to this mailbox.
If you require any further assistance on the content of this EPN please contact andy.black@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you have a question about the distribution of EPNs contact employerpensionnotice@cabinetoffice.gov.uk