DH tenders for QMAS replacement

The Department of Health has published a tender for a GP Payments Calculation Service to calculate payments for the Quality and Outcomes Framework and payments to GPs for the performance of commissioning consortia.

The new service will replace the existing Quality Management and Analysis System (QMAS) which is used to work out GP practices’ entitlement to QoF payments and will also cover other payments outlined in the government’s white paper on reorganising the NHS.

The tender document says the contract will be worth between £20m and £60m over six to nine years and the successful bidder will also be required to manage data migration from existing payments calculation tools including QMAS.

Amemorandum of understanding on the tender says the GPPCS will support four payment types – QoF payments, payments for local quality indicators recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, enhanced services payments and “quality premium” payments which will be paid to commissioning consortia according to their outcomes.

The document says the new system must be flexible enough to cope with future changes to GP payments system but will not be a replacement for the National Health Application Infrastructure System (NHAIS) which currently calculates and makes payments to GPs. It will also not need to provide functionality for all local enhanced services or handle patient data.

QMAS was developed by BT to support the QoF when it was introduced in 2003 and has been widely regarded as one of the successful elements delivered under the National Programme for IT.

Tenders for the GP Payments Calculation Service must be received by 12 noon on 24 November.

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