The following is a list of enhancements included in R4+ Version 9.0.2. All fixes are cumulative (each new release contains all new fixes as well as all fixes from the previous release).
Below are the 2026 NHS Dental Fees which take effect from April 1st, 2026. This is a Fee Increase of 1.66% across all Treatment Bands in England with Wales retaining the 2025 Fees for Orthodontic Courses only.
| Country | Band 1 / Ortho Assessment | Urgent / Unscheduled Care | Band 2 | Band 3/ Ortho Appliance Fitted | Replacement Appliance | Double Replacement Appliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | £27.90 | £27.90 | £76.60 | £332.10 | £99.60 | £199.20 |
| Wales | £20.00 | £30.00 | £60.00 | £260.00 | £86.40 | £172.80 |
We have implemented several changes throughout R4+ to support the Introduction of Care Package based Treatment which replaces the 2006 NHS Contract System of Banded based Treatment.
Due to the Scale and Scope of the changes under the new Contract Model, further changes are being implemented over the coming months. A Summary of the initial functionality provided in this Release is listed below with more details provided in the Included Handout.
Non-Urgent Care Packages:
When undertaking an NHS Course, R4+ will calculate the relevant Care Package that is applicable as you chart treatment; the total values will show under the Plan as normal, but a new Icon is presented on the Status Bar which presents the breakdown of the Package Charges between the Patient and the DPB.
Charges will be raised at course completion based on the calculated charges per Package, so the user gets an accurate breakdown in both Patient Financials and Financial Reports.
Urgent Care Package:
Any Treatment performed under an Urgent Course of Treatment will now automatically trigger the Urgent Care Package instead of the Urgent UDA Banding; all existing allowed forms of treatment under Urgent Arrangements continue unaffected, except Arrest of Bleeding Treatments (DPB Codes 2302 or 5302) have now also been added to the allowed forms of Treatment.
Transitional Courses of Treatment & FP17 Claims:
Due to the change in the Contract Models, all Active NHS Dental Courses of Treatment that reach Completion on or after April 1st 2026 but Accepted prior to April 1st 2026, will retain the agreed Banded Patient Charge from Course Acceptance. However, the Renumeration received from the DPB will no longer be the expected UDA Value of Treatment, but instead is calculated as the remainder of the relevant Care Package that the existing Treatment would now be considered part of under the new Contract.
This is done automatically, so the Banded Patient Charge is generated as normal at Course Completion; however the FP17 Claim will present both the Patient and DPB Costs based on the Transitional Arrangements and include the calculated Care Package(s) for Transmission under the new Contract Arrangements as required by the NHSBSA.
Changes to Patient Registration and Recalls:
The 6-month automatic recall system is ending, with intervals extended to 18–24 months for stable patients to prioritize access for new patients. New Assessment DPB Codes are now available under the Examination Category for use in Patient Recalls with the existing Examination DPB Codes now contributing as part of the New Patient/Initial Assessment Registration Care Package.
Retirement of the 2-Month Rule:
The "further treatment within 2 months" rule which allowed Clinicians to provide additional treatment without a new patient charge or claim continuation UDAs has now been retired and removed from April 1st, 2026.
Charge Exempt Treatments:
Treatments that Traditionally maintained a UDA Banding but were Considered Free to the Patients continue under the new Contract, but they are now counted under the Miscellaneous Care Package.
Where these are used in isolation or in tandem under the Package, the existing Charge Exempt state is maintained with the DPB covering the full cost of the Package. However, if mixed with Treatment considered chargeable under the package, the Patient will receive a Charge as the Charged Treatment takes precedence within the same Care Package. This involves Treatments under Denture Repair, Arrest of Bleeding, Removal of Sutures, Bridge Repair or Antibiotic Prescriptions.
Patient Record Treatment Tab Changes:
The Functionality required under the New Contract Reform requires all Clinical Activity to be Performed in Clinical Chart; as such we have reduced the available functionality in this area for New NHS Courses of Treatment from April 1st, 2026.
Users will be able to Create New Plans so retroactive courses can still be created where needed and Course Uncompletion to regain access to any Completed Course within Clinical Chart where alterations may be required, due to Changes in Clinical Decisions or Remediations required by FP17 Claim Rejections. All Treatment Tab Functionality remains unaffected for Orthodontic Courses on or after April 1st, 2026, and all existing Courses of Treatment prior to April 1st, 2026.
A few smaller changes also come into effect from April 1st, 2026, as follows:
NHS England – Urgent Care Replaced with Unscheduled Care:
Urgent courses of Treatment previously incurred a fixed 1.2 UDA with a Band 1 Urgent Patient Charge; however, this is now being replaced with Unscheduled Care. The same treatments remain available as well as the Patient still receiving a Band 1 Urgent Charge, however, the UDA Cost is no longer fixed and is instead calculated using individual NHS Contracts Notional UDA Multiplier held in COMPASS as used in New Patient Payments.
NHS England & Wales – FP17 Claim Denture Modification CDS Update:
Treatments that fall under “Denture Additions / Reline & Rebase” have now been split into two CDS categories as “Denture Relines/Rebase” and “Denture Additions.” These will be calculated as normal in the FP17 Claim as you complete New Dental Courses of Treatment.
NHS England – Fissure Sealants Reclassified as Band 2:
Fissure Sealant only Treatments have previously always incurred a Band 1 Charge. However, these Treatments will now incur a Band 2 Charge.
A few smaller changes also come into effect from April 1st, 2026, as follows:
NHS Wales – Mandatory NHS Number & No Number Reasons
All FP17 Claims for Courses of Treatment must contain an NHS Number to be accepted in COMPASS; where an NHS Number is set on the Patient Record it will automatically be included on an FP17 Claim.
Additionally, in situations where a Patient cannot provide their Number, or it is not known, new Reasons are available which automatically set predetermined NHS Numbers to inform COMPASS of this fact. Any Courses created after this is set will automatically inherit the number into the FP17 Claim.
If no number was set on the Patient Record before an FP17 Claim is generated after April 1st, the user will still be able to directly enter it into the FP17 Form, or if using one of the Reasons, copy the number into the FP17 Form from the Patient Record.
NHS England, Wales & IoM – Updated Patient Ethnicity Groups
The Available Ethnicity Groups have been updated per NHSBSA requirements on the Patient Record Scheme Tab and subsequent FP17 Claims, to ensure accurate capture. Any existing Patient who was previously set as “White British”, “White Irish”, “Other Write Background”, “Any Other Ethnic Group” or “Patient Declined” will be reset to allow for prompted reselection.
This was recommended by the NHSBSA as the Introduction of new Categories and Changes to existing Descriptions may lend themselves to be more accurate in these cases, so reselection is necessary to ensure accuracy is maintained in Transmitted FP17 Claims.
NHS England, Wales & IoM – Patient Has No Fixed Abode
As an Address is necessary on patients to allow Treatment and FP17 Claim Submissions, this could be problematic for patients who have no Fixed Address. A new option is now available on the Personal Tab which will pre-fill the Address with a special Post Code that is recognised by COMPASS for this purpose.
Defects Fixed in R4+ v9.0.2
An issue was quickly identified where a Significant code required by COMPASS to successfully process Claims which were accepted prior to April 1st, 2026, was missing in the Message Transmission. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
Please Ready to Send and then resubmit any affected claims after applying this update to your system.
An issue was quickly identified and confirmed by the NHSBSA that the Free Examinations for Patients aged between 18 and 25 and over 60 is still Supported under the April 2026 Payment Reform; this includes Patients who have received an AMBER Tooth Decay ACORN Assessment which then includes a Free Fluoride Varnish. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was quickly identified where certain Treatment Codes which are comprised of multiple Stages or Groups would present an Error instead of calculating a Care Package Charge. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was quickly identified where the Bridge Repair Treatment Codes 1871 and 5131 were not calculating the expected Miscellaneous Care Package. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was quickly identified where the Denture Adjustment Treatment Codes 2831/32, 2841/42 & 5531/32 were not calculating the expected Miscellaneous Care Package. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
A last-minute notification was issued from the NHSBSA that the existing Rule where any Permanent Restoration is applied to the same Tooth as a Root Canal Treatment the Patient Charge for the RCT Care Package is now recognised and the relevant Caries Restoration Care Package is not within the same Course of Treatment.
This applies the same rule as the previous Banding Regulations but to the New Care Package Regulations. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was identified that affected SCHEDL processing in Wales after the April 1st reforms came into force. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was identified where the FP17 Claims Acceptance and Completion Date controls were not correctly validating based on the Course's initial Date and Payment Reform switchover of April 1st, 2026; if modified by the User, this would result in claims being set to dates which would cause problems in Transmission and Claim Rejections and could also result in Errors.
This has now been corrected so any attempted adjustment will be allowed, up to or no earlier than the April 1st Payment Reforms, to avoid errors and increased rejections. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was quickly identified where the Course Activity Banding required by COMPASS to successfully process Claims was missing in the Transmission. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
Please Ready to Send and then resubmit any affected claims after applying this update to your system.
An issue was identified where the Patient’s specified ethnicity was not being correctly inherited or translated to an appropriate group in the Orthodontic FP17 Claim Start or subsequent End messages. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
Please Ready to Send and then resubmit any affected claims after applying this update to your system.
An issue was identified where the new Unscheduled Care Courses and UDA values were not being counted in the NHS Activity & Summary Reports.
Please note while the Course count will be counted immediately, the subsequent UDA Value will not currently be presented until the subsequent SCHEDL is received to indicate a course’s Scheduled UDA Value, due to it being Notionally Driven by Dental Units relative value per Contract instead of a fixed value. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
A few small issues were identified which affected the Create New Plan form:
In Wales, the “Urgent” setting was incorrectly replaced with “Unscheduled Care”
In England, the “Treatment on Referral” and “Replacement Appliance” options were incorrectly disabled under the recent Payment Reforms.
These have now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.
An issue was identified due to the changes in supported Ethnicities by the NHS Payment Reforms where certain group options are only available before or after April 1st, 2026; the warning message when attempting to Ready to Send a Claim if the Ethnicity is missing has been adjusted to make this clearer and to indicate what to select in both cases. This has now been fixed in R4+ v9.0.2.