The Federal Government has signed off with all states and territories on details of the national health reform, agreed to in principle by COAG in February.

 

The reforms will see the Australian Government invest an extra $19.8 billion in public hospitals through to 2019-20, rising to a total extra $175 billion by 2029-30.

 

Additional services that will be funded by the Commonwealth include:

 

  • $2.9 million extra cases in emergency departments
  • $2 million additional in-patient services, such as major surgery or treatment for severe conditions such as kidney failure or a heart attack
  • $9 million more outpatient consultations, such as minor surgery or physiotherapy.

 

The Federal Government has pledged to pay for 45 per cent of growth in hospital services in 2014-15, increasing to 50 per cent in 2017-18, so that the cost of growth for hospitals is shared equally with the states and territories on an ongoing basis.

 

Under the reform agreement, states and territories have agreed to improved transparency in the health care system. 

 

The new National Health Performance Authority (NHPA) will enable Australians to access information on the MyHospitals website about how  hospitals perform so they can choose the best care. There will also be access to greater information about the primary health care system through healthy community reports.

 

To improve the transparency of public hospital funding a single National Health Funding Pool will be established. The Administrator of the pool will report on Commonwealth and State funding flowing through the pool and the services delivered by this funding.

 

A new Independent Hospital Pricing Authority will set the national price for public hospital services and will develop a national activity-based funding system.  

 

Local Hospital Networks will mean that hospital management are devolved to the local level. In addition, local clinicians will be engaged to advise about patient pathways which best meet the needs of the local community.

 

Under reforms to aged care the Commonwealth will be directly responsible for funding basic community care in most States and Territories for people aged 65 and over, in addition to its existing responsibility for community aged care packages and residential aged care.


More information on the health reforms is at www.yourhealth.gov.au