The General Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004

Recovery of overpayments

39.—(1) Where, on or before 31st March 2004, a medical practitioner had admitted an overpayment drawn to his attention by a Board or the Agency under regulation 39(2) of the 1997 Regulations(1) (claims and overpayments) but the overpayment, or any part of it, had not been recovered, the amount overpaid, or any part of it not recovered before 31st March 2004, shall, notwithstanding the repeal of the 1997 Regulations, continue to be recoverable by that Board and shall be treated as a debt owed by that medical practitioner to that Board.

(2) Notwithstanding the repeal of the 1997 Regulations, where a Board or the Agency considers that a payment has been made to a medical practitioner under the Statement of Fees and Allowances when it was not due and has not drawn that alleged overpayment to the attention of the medical practitioner on or before 31st March 2004, the Board may draw that overpayment to the attention of the medical practitioner and –

(a) where the overpayment is admitted by him, the Board may recover the amount overpaid from him as a civil debt; and

(b) where the overpayment is not admitted by him, the arrangements for appeals set out in paragraph 80 of the Statement of Fees and Allowances shall apply.

(3) In this Article, “Statement of Fees and Allowances” means the statement determined and published by the Department under regulation 37 of the 1997 Regulations(2), as that statement had effect on 31st March 2004.

(1)

Regulation 39(2) was amended by S.R. 1998 No. 9

(2)

Regulation 37 was amended by S.R. 1998 No. 9