What are Excess Treatment Costs?

The costs of non-commercial research are met by different funders depending on the type of cost. Guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care for 'Attributing the costs of health and social care research and development' (AcoRD) sets out the principles for determining who pays for the different costs.

Treatment Costs are the care costs that would continue to be incurred if the patient care service in question continued to be provided following the end of the research study. The difference between the Treatment Costs and the costs of the existing standard treatment is referred to as the Excess Treatment Cost (ETC).

ETCs are paid for by service commissioners.

Visit the NIHR website Excess Treatment Cost page.

Services Provided by the NIHR Clinical Research Network

In October 2018 the NIHR Clinical Research Network took over the management of the Excess Treatment Cost (ETC) payments, on behalf of NHS England, for studies where Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were the responsible commissioner. This service is now provided for studies where Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are the responsible commissioner.

In the CRNCC, we provide the following services:

• 'Attributing the costs of health and social care research and development' (AcoRD) Specialists who support completion of the SoECAT

• a Triage service for the identification of the correct Commissioner for each study

• the recording of recruitment activity and ICB ETC per participant value for studies which take place in England

• the administration for the processing of ICB ETC payments to be paid to the Local Clinical Research Networks (LCRNs) on a twice-yearly basis in arrears. The LCRNs receive payment schedules which indicate which organisations should receive the payments.