Today, the Health Minister presented a substantial package of reform proposals for consideration by the first meeting of the Private Health CEO Forum, to support the viability of private hospitals, while making the entire system fairer and more sustainable for patients.
The Private Health CEO Forum (CEO Forum) has been formed in response to the Private Hospital Sector Financial Health Check to discuss a range of short and long-term reform options to ensure the availability and viability of private health services.
The CEO Forum brings together key decisionmakers from a broad mix of for-profit and not-for-profit private health businesses, including insurers and hospital operators in both regional and metropolitan locations. Together, they represent around 60 per cent of private hospital revenue and 70 per cent of insurance policies.
The CEO Forum membership also includes health sector leaders representing consumers, doctors, nurses, state health departments, and independent experts.
Key options for reform presented to the group for their advice today include:
- Changes to improve access to 'hospital in the home' care, by requiring insurers to cover clinically appropriate and safe hospital-run models. Patients will benefit from getting hospital-quality care from the comfort of their home, while hospitals will be supported to grow and innovate, with an important new funding stream.
- Changes to make maternity care more accessible and affordable, by including maternity cover as a standard inclusion across a greater number of policies, instead of only 'gold' level policies, expanding access to new models of care, and making it easier for insurers to cover this critical service.
- Changes to improve access to mental health care, by increasing the supply of internationally educated psychiatrists, which will also have flow-on benefits for the public hospital system.
- Changes to make contract negotiations fairer between hospitals and insurers, by improving the "default benefits" system that guarantees the funding that hospitals receive when they don't have a contract with an insurer.
- Other reforms to reduce red tape and improve productivity, to support the long-term health of the private health sector.
The CEO Forum will now work through the measures presented today and develop long term reforms in future.
Details of the forum's membership and terms of reference are available on the department's website at:
https://www.health.gov.au/committees-and-groups/private-health-chief-executive-officer-forum
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
"As the Financial Health Check showed, the private hospital sector is facing a number of challenges, largely because of private pressures in the system that can only be managed by hospitals and insurers sitting down together and sorting it out.
"The Government is playing its part, by bringing the key players together to work collaboratively to find solutions for the benefit of patients and our health system.
"The options I presented to the CEO Forum today will kickstart the reform process and fast-track the sector to a place of viability and sustainability.
"Importantly, these reforms will make maternity, mental health and 'hospital in the home' services more available and affordable for millions of Australians, while underpinning the viability of the private health sector into the future."
