Commissioning Contracts and Fee Disputes
Commissioners of care will carry out contract monitoring visits of services to ensure providers are meeting the terms of their contract. These visits may take place as a matter of course, or because they have been prompted by a safeguarding alert or a regulator visit.
Sometimes these visits are used to try and reduce fees or result in commissioners seeking to cancel the contract based on an alleged breach of contract. Sometimes they will try and remove residents.
Often the actions of the commissioner can influence those of the regulator, and vice-versa.
Ridouts can help you by:
- challenging contract monitoring findings
- challenging cancellation of contracts
- challenging the removal of service users by helping residents to secure their own legal representation in conjunction with providers
- challenging commissioner attempts to reduce fees
- reviewing contracts to analyse whether a fee increase is payable
Outcomes achieved include:
- Initiation of court proceedings for failure to pay fees leading to settlement outside of court
- Successful challenge to cancellations/suspension of commissioning contracts
- Recovery of underpaid fees
- Re-negotiated fee rates
Consumer Law for Care Homes - Validity & Enforceability of Commercial Contracts
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has, in recent times, cast doubt on some terms that are often in contracts between providers and independent paying residents. This includes up-front payments for admission into a home (a “joining fee”) and after death liabilities.
Providers should review their existing agreements to ensure they do not fall foul of consumer law. These contracts usually address medium to long term arrangements so the validity and enforceability of them is important when considering the business security of a care service.
Ensuring that your customers understand proposed terms and commit with informed knowledge is important. Failure to do so could render agreements unenforceable and could result in regulatory fines or claims for damages.
Ridouts can provide advice to providers on these contracts, whether it is a one-off agreement or management of contract arrangements on an on-going basis.
Ridouts can help you by:
- Reviewing existing contracts
- Providing standard form contracts
- Providing customer information packs
- Online webinar on contract management
- Telephone advice on contract troubleshooting
Outcomes achieved include:
- Drafting new service user agreements which are CMA compliant
We advised a group of care homes on their independent paying resident contracts. We reviewed them with particular emphasis on making those contracts compliant with criticisms made under Consumer Rights Legislation by the Competitions and Markets Authority.
As a result of our holistic review of all of the contract terms, our Client was able to update their contracts to ensure compliance with Consumer Law whilst maintaining the commerciality of the agreements.
