Private companies are to bid for contracts to run all aspects of people's long term care (LTC), including medical care, at six pilot sites, under a new Government scheme.
The general practitioners news service, Pulse, has reported Ministers will put out to tender contracts for schemes intended to keep people under a single budget tariff for all care.
Supporting documents list four potential funding models, including one under which a principal contract holder would then sub-contract aspects of care to other providers.
Pulse added that private providers would not bear the financial risk if there was an overspend, and any savings on the planned budget would be ploughed back into the local NHS rather than being kept as a profit share by companies.
The Department of Health (DoH) said the model could ‘attract new providers which are able to offer cost-effective, high-quality care', but admitted there were potential risks to the model too, including potential challenge to implementation from local politicians and possible issues around competition.
The deadline for applications is 25 May and the DoH said it would give each pilot site financial support of £95,000 from April 2012 to March 2013. This would ‘support clinical, performance, finance and analyst involvement'.
