For UK MedTech companies
Your NHS price has become the ceiling in every private hospital negotiation
When private procurement teams can see what the NHS pays, they use it as leverage. Without a defensible dual-pricing strategy, you are effectively negotiating against yourself on every contract.
Two minutes. Solva follows up with specific dual-pricing strategy options.
- Private hospital procurement teams explicitly referencing NHS prices during negotiations
- MedTech sales teams struggling to justify higher prices in the private sector
- Contracts with private hospitals reflecting minimal uplift over NHS tariffs
- Loss of private market share to competitors with more aggressive private pricing strategies
- Increased administrative burden managing disparate pricing structures
- Inefficient resource allocation between NHS and private sales teams
- Reduced profit margins on private sales
- Loss of market share to competitors with differentiated pricing
- Perception of MedTech company as 'NHS-centric' limiting private sector appeal
- Erosion of brand value in the premium private healthcare market
- The primary root cause is the lack of a distinct commercial strategy for the UK private healthcare market, often driven by a historical over-reliance on NHS procurement processes.
- This leads to a default position where NHS pricing, which is typically lower due to volume-based agreements and public sector cost-containment mandates, becomes the de facto benchmark for private hospital negotiations.
- Behaviourally, sales teams may lack the training and confidence to articulate the unique value proposition and premium pricing justification for private providers, while systemically, internal reporting and incentive structures may not adequately differentiate between NHS and private sector performance.
No verified UK data available for the specific claim. However, a dual-pricing strategy is crucial for MedTech companies to achieve optimal pricing in the UK private healthcare market (L.E.K. Consulting, 2024).
Source: https://www.lek.com/capabilities/pricing-revenue-optimization/medtech-pricing
How to fix it
Develop a separate private sector pricing strategy with distinct value propositions. Avoid publishing NHS pricing publicly. Train your commercial team to position private hospital contracts on speed, service, and clinical outcomes rather than price parity with NHS. Negotiate private contracts independently.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this problem persist?
MedTech companies that publish or allow NHS pricing to become visible often find private hospital procurement teams using NHS tariff-based pricing as a benchmark. The private sector should command a premium - faster decision-making, no NICE hurdles, higher margins - but this requires a deliberate dual-pricing strategy and clear commercial separation.
What is the cost of leaving it unaddressed?
No verified UK data available for the specific claim. However, MedTech companies failing to implement a dual-pricing strategy for private hospitals risk significant revenue loss by benchmarking against lower NHS prices (Pricing Solutions, 2024).
This is exactly what I do with UK private practices. Answer the few questions above and I'll come back personally with where to start. Paul.