A Guide to 2026 NHS Changes – CareStack

April 1st, 2026 onwards, the NHS is changing how several common treatments are charged and reported. These changes affect your patient fees and your UDA targets. Here is a guide to help you transition to these new rules as part of CareStack’s 10.36 Release on March 27th.

What is Changing?

1. Denture Modification Changes (Relines, Rebases, and Additions)

The UDA value for Denture Repair has doubled from 1 to 2 with zero patient charge.
Denture Additions/Reline/Rebase will expire on April 1st and be replaced by 2 new NHS treatment categories: Denture Reline/Rebase and Denture Additions.
If Denture Reline/Rebase and Denture Additions are the only treatments in a treatment plan, Band 2 Patient Payable is applicable with 3 UDAs.
If Denture Reline/Rebase or Denture Additions are included in a Band 2 course of treatment, an additional 2 UDAs will be awarded on top of the standard Band 2 UDAs (3), resulting in 5, 7, or 9 UDAs, depending on whether the treatment falls under Band 2a, 2b, or 2c.
Denture Reline/Rebase and Denture Additions on a Band 3 course of treatment will only earn Band 3 Patient Payable and relevant Band 3 UDAs (12 UDAs).

2. Banding & Treatment Shifts

Fissure Sealants: These have moved from Band 1 to Band 2. This means a higher patient charge and more UDAs for the practice.
Fluoride Varnish: There is now a specific category for Nurse-Applied Fluoride Varnish.
Pre-formed Crowns: These are now officially included in the 'sub-band' calculations, ensuring the system tracks them correctly toward your Band totals.

3. Unscheduled Care (The New Urgent Treatment)

The NHS is standardising emergency visits under Unscheduled Care. This acts as a single 'bundle' for the visit. This will attract a Band 1 Patient Payable and £60 worth of UDA based on the contract.

4. Annual Fee Increase

All NHS patient charges (Bands 1, 2, and 3) will increase by 1.66% starting April 1st. The system will update these prices automatically; you don’t need to change any settings.

New NHS Features

To handle these NHS changes, we have added new tools to help your Front of House staff and Clinicians stay compliant.

1. The NHS Treatment Category Page

We have added a new page in the system that lists every official NHS Dental Activity Code (NHS Treatment Categories). To access it,

Navigate to the System Menu > select Practice Settings > Treatments > NHS TX Categories.

To retire a category or bring it back for a backdated claim,

Locate the category in the list.
Click Edit.

Select the intended Expiry Date.
Click Save.

Changing the expiry date here automatically enables or disables all linked procedure codes in bulk across the system.
If a claim is rejected because a code is Expired, simply extend the expiry date. This allows you to submit data with the correct historical info without permanently changing your current settings.
You can use this grid as a reference to ensure your internal procedure codes match NHS standards. If you are unsure which Band a treatment belongs to, the NHS Defined Mapping can be found in the grid.

Note: When editing the NHS Setup for a new Procedure Code, the correct NHS UDA Band will be selected based on the selected NHS Tx Category. Inline warnings appear on changing the Band, confirming whether the action is intentional.

2. Unscheduled Care (UC) Workflow

We have simplified how you handle emergency patients.

To chart an Unscheduled Care Plan, follow these steps:

Select the patient using the Global Search Bar.
Click the Chart quick link.

Create a new Treatment Plan.
Click the gear icon to mark it as Unscheduled Care.

When you mark a plan as Unscheduled Care, the fee is locked. You can add extra fillings or extractions to that plan, and the system will automatically keep the price at the flat UC rate.

Note: For Private Codes, the total will include the value of these codes.

NHS Payment (£): You can now see Notional Value (£) represented as NHS Payment instead of UDAs. This shows you exactly how much money that specific NHS claim is worth to the practice.
You can also directly Submit Claim.

You cannot accidentally delete an Unscheduled Care plan. You must remove the NHS Treatment Type from the plan first. To remove the NHS Treatment Type,

Click X (Remove) on the Unscheduled Care banner.
Click Remove on the resulting pop-up to proceed.

Quick Checklist

Change	Suggested Activity
NHS Category Denture Additions/Reline/Rebase is being retired	The Expiry Date will be automatically set as April 1, 2026, by CareStack. Users can clear or extend the Expiry Date, if there are open CoTs that require the addition of the procedure code linked to Denture Additions/Reline/Rebase.
3 new NHS Tx Categories Denture Relines/Rebase Denture Additions Nurse-Applied Fluoride Varnish	Create new procedure codes and link the categories to these procedure codes using NHS Setup. Band will be auto-filled during setup as per NHS mappings.
Denture Repair Code Band changed to Unbanded and UDA from 1 to 2	Change the Band of Procedure Code linked to the Denture Repair Code to Unbanded in NHS Setup.
Fissure Sealants Band Changed from Band 1 to Band 2	Create a new procedure code for Band 2 Fissure Sealant.
Unscheduled Care	Mark Treatments as Unscheduled Care from the Chart and submit the claims with necessary CDS codes to claim UDAs for Unscheduled Care Plans.
Fees updated to 1.66% for all Bands	No change. The fees for bands will be updated automatically by the system.

DOs and DON'Ts

To ensure your claims are accepted and your UDA awards are correct, please follow these rules strictly during the transition week (March 27 – April 1).

What Should Users DO?

Check the Date of Acceptance: Always verify if your plan starts before or after April 1st. The system logic (Fees and UDAs) depends entirely on this date. Date of Acceptance is the date at which the first procedure (by date) in the plan is completed.
Create new procedure codes and link them to the newly introduced Categories Denture Reline/Rebase, Denture Additions & Nurse Applied Fluoride Varnish. Use these codes for Charting from April 1st.
Update Denture Repair Mapping: Ensure Denture Repair is mapped to Unbanded.

Use the New Fissure Sealant Code: We recommend using the newly created Fissure Sealant Procedure code mapped to Band 2 for all plans starting April 1st and moving the older code to Terminated to remove the code from the Chart and other touchpoints.
Clean Up Open Plans: If you choose to manually change your current Fissure Sealant mapping to Band 2, you must ensure there are no open NHS plans containing that code first; otherwise, your patient fees will become inconsistent.
Users should ensure they move all Procedure Codes linked to Band 4 to Terminated.

What Should Users NOT DO?

DO NOT open Unscheduled Care (UC) plans before April 1: The NHS will reject UC claims if the Date of Acceptance is in March. Use the standard Urgent Treatment workflow until the April 1st cutoff.
DO NOT add new codes to old plans: Do not add Procedure Codes linked to Denture Relines/Rebase, Denture Additions, or Nurse-Applied Fluoride Varnish to any plan with a Date of Acceptance before April 1st. These will be rejected by the NHS for Wrong Code Usage.
DO NOT add retired codes to new plans: Do not use the old Procedure Code linked to Denture Additions/Reline/Rebase or mark a code as Urgent Treatment for any plan starting on or after April 1st.

Claiming Guide for the April Changes

Category/Treatment	Date of Acceptance: Up to March 31	Date of Acceptance: April 1 onwards	Expected NHS Result
Emergency Visit	Use Urgent Treatment	Use Unscheduled Care	1.2 UDA (Pre-April 1) / £60 worth of UDA (Post April 1)
Denture Relines/Additions	Use Denture Additions/Reline/Rebase	Use Denture Reline/Rebase or Denture Additions	Accepted
Denture Repair	Use Denture Repair (Mapped to Unbanded)	Use Denture Repair (Mapped to Unbanded)	1 UDA (Pre-April 1st) / 2 UDA (Post-April 1st)
Nurse Applied Fluoride Varnish	Do not use new this category before April 1	Use Procedure Code linked to Nurse Applied Fluoride Varnish	Accepted (0.5 UDA)
Fissure Sealants	Use Band 1 Mapping	Use Band 2 Mapping	Accepted and UDA awarded as per Band

Note: Date of Acceptance is the date at which the first procedure (by date) in the plan is completed.

Articles in this section