National Draft Pricing Framework Released
03-Feb-2012The Independent Health Pricing Authority (‘IHPA’) has released a draft pricing framework to facilitate public comment - and ASMOF is already on the job.
But first, one step back.
The National Health Reform Agreement signed last year sets out the intention of the Australian Government and all state and territory governments to work in partnership to improve health outcomes for all Australians. The IHPA was established as a Statutory Authority on 15 December 2011. The IHPA is responsible for critical aspects of the new nationally consistent approach to activity based funding of public hospitals. This is based upon the notion of setting a national efficient price (‘NEP’) for public hospital services.
As previously commented in updates last year, such an approach, if not handled carefully and sensibly, may lead to unintended consequences to the health system and patients. Unfortunately the term efficient is often crudely seen as meaning ‘the cheapest’ rather than what is required to ensure the most effective delivery of services to the community by the very best health workforce available to the public health system.
The IHPA has released a draft Pricing Framework to start the NEP process for public hospital services. Members of the public and all interested parties have been invited to make submissions on the draft framework by 21 February 2012.
Now what?
The National Executive of the federal branch of ASMOF is already at work to ensure that the collective voice of the profession from all over Australia is heard. The federal ASMOF President, Dr Tony Sara (also your NSW ASMOF President), is currently working closely with your interstate colleagues to ensure a fulsome and proper response is made to the IHPA.
For your information, click on the link below to access the relevant page on the IHPA website, which has the full draft, along with a summary document.
http://www.ihpa.gov.au/internet/ihpa/publishing.nsf/Content/draft-pricing-framework
More information will be made available as it comes to hand.