General Ophthalmic Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Payments

13.—(1) Any claim by a contractor for fees in respect of the provision of general ophthalmic services shall be made by completing or securing the completion of a sight test form and sending it to the Agency within six months from and including the date of completion of the provision of the services.

(2) Any such claim shall be signed—

(a) if the contractor is a body corporate, by any of its directors who is a contractor, who takes part in the provision of general ophthalmic services at the address at which the relevant service was provided or by any of its employees who is such a contractor;

(b) if the contractor is not a body corporate—

(i) if the Service was provided on his behalf by a deputy or employee who is also a contractor, by the deputy or employee who shall give the name of the contractor on whose behalf the service was provided;

(ii) in other cases by the contractor himself.

(3) A signatory shall sign any such claim in ink with his initials or forename and with his surname in his own handwriting and not by means of a stamp.

(4) Except as may be provided in the regulations, in the Statement or in sub-paragraph (5), a contractor shall not demand or accept from any patient or from other persons the payment of any fee or other remuneration in respect of the provision of general ophthalmic services.

(5) A contractor shall be entitled to demand and recover from a patient or person having charge of a patient, a sum in respect of loss of remunerative time resulting from that patient’s failure to keep an appointment.

(6) A contractor shall not demand or accept from the Agency the payment of any fee or remuneration in respect of any item of service—

(a) which has not been provided under general ophthalmic services; or

(b) for which another claim has already been submitted to the Agency.