Productive relationships and regular communication with our stakeholders and partners supports us to improve the transparency of funding for public hospital services.
We will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders and partners, as productive discussions not only provide valuable guidance to assist all parties to understand the basis of funding calculations and outcomes, but also builds trust in our functions.
States and Territories
Early and impartial engagement with all stakeholders, especially States, Territories and the Commonwealth, allows time to discuss and resolve issues in a collaborative manner. The Administrator’s Jurisdictional Advisory Committee (JAC) is a key channel for this engagement and is comprised of senior representatives of all States and Territories and relevant Commonwealth departments and portfolio agencies.
The objectives of the Administrator’s JAC are to:
- consider and provide advice to the Administrator on strategic issues related to the Administrator’s functions under the NHR Agreement and NHR Act
- enable collaboration between the Administrator, NHFB, Commonwealth, State and Territory health departments and IHACPA on the relevant operational arrangements and priorities under the NHR Agreement and NHR Act.
Key discussion topics for the Administrator’s JAC in 2024-25 will include:
- implementation of the Addendum
- Administrator’s policy documents
- 2023-24 Annual Reconciliation of public hospital funding and services
- funding integrity, including data matching
- Payments System administration
- consistency and transparency of public hospital funding.
Commonwealth
We will continue to be supported by, and work with our Commonwealth stakeholders through a range of formal and informal arrangements, including:
- the provision of shared services (e.g. payroll and IT desktop) from the Department of Health and Aged Care
- Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) technical support from the Department of Health and Aged Care
- the provision of public hospital activity data from Services Australia
- website hosting with GovCMS from the Department of Finance
- monthly roundtable discussions with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, The Treasury, the Department of Finance and the Department of Health and Aged Care on NHR Agreement funding and activities.
Portfolio agencies
We work closely with our portfolio agency partners to support the Administrator to provide trusted and impartial advice to all stakeholders and deliver best practice administration of public hospital funding. These agencies include the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA), the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
The main functions of the IHACPA are to determine each year the NEP for ABF and National Efficient Cost (NEC) for Block funding for health care services provided by public hospitals. The NEP is a major determinant of the level of Commonwealth funding for public hospital services and provides a benchmark for the efficient cost of providing public hospital services. As such, we routinely engage with the IHACPA, including as a member of IHACPA’s Jurisdictional Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee.
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
The ACSQHC leads and coordinates key improvements in safety and quality in health care. The Commission works in four key priority areas:
- patient safety
- partnering with patients, consumers and communities
- quality, cost and value
- supporting health professionals to provide care that is informed, supported and organised to deliver safe and high-quality care.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
The AIHW develops, collects, compiles, analyses, manages and disseminates Australian health and welfare data information. We collaborate with the AIHW on public hospital funding related matters via a number of committees including the Strategic Committee for National Health Information; the National Hospitals Information Advisory Committee; and the Health Expenditure Advisory Committee.
Industry partners
In 2024-25, we will work with a number of industry partners to support our small agency deliver on our objectives. We will leverage their expertise, be supported by their advice and rely on their independence and in the process, ensure we promote knowledge sharing to continue to build our internal capability.
