Page 10 - ANZCP Gazette APRIL 2022

ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONS AUSTRALIA – ICECAP POLICY SYMPOSIUM:
14TH OCTOBER 2021
Alison Horton CCP, FANZCP
The AHPA Policy Symposium was held in October last year for Member CEO’s and Senior Policy Officers. The symposium focused on developing models of care that encompass: Innovation, Collaboration, Equity, Connection, Access and Prevention (ICECAP).
This meeting was addressed by five speakers from different areas of health service providers. It gave us a snapshot into other areas where perfusionists may not be involved, but where some of us who are aging will end up!
Dr Gabrielle O’Kane, CEO of the National Rural Health Alliance, spoke on the challenges of funding for rural health communities. The National Rural Health Alliance is the peak body for rural and remote health in Australia. Despite many changes to the system, rural areas still fail to provide an optimum service, and health outcome remains poor. The barriers to delivering a good service remain the inability to retain health workers due to professional, financial and personal reasons. The Alliance is looking at new models, such as assessing the communities to see what is needed, funding health professionals differently, employing a range of health care professionals, supporting visiting specialists, accessing telehealth, and joint funding from different areas of government.
Ben Harris, Director of Policy and Research from Private Healthcare Australia (Australian private health insurance industry's peak representative body, representing 25 health funds consisting of for-profit and not-for-profit health funds in Australia) covered issues on costs, regulation, support, transparency and value. The problems include an ageing population and membership base, advancement in medical technology, increasing chronic disease burden, trends towards greater inpatient management, increased public hospital cost shifting and costs of prostheses. Challenges are regulation killing innovation, costly compliance burden, acute care model for a chronic world, and a contest for funding. Suggestions included improving affordability and value by being efficient and providing the right care at the right price.
Assoc. Professor Faye McMillan AM (Deputy National Rural Health Commissioner – whose role is to consult with rural, regional and remote stakeholders and communities, and formulates advice for Minister Gillespie to assist development of a rural health strategy and policy) addressed primary care reform in respect to our First Nations communities and health care models to inform our approach to future health care models in urban as well as rural settings and where does allied health fits into the picture.
Dr David Cullen, the Chief Economist spoke on the NDIS – the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIS was established to support people with disability to achieve their goals, to help them to realise their full potential, to participate in and contribute to society, and to exercise choice and control over their lives. The NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) is an independent statutory agency which is responsible for administering the NDIS. Therapy services are among the crucial supports available to NDIS participants.
During 2019–2020, 300,000 participants received therapy through the NDIS – 83% of all participants of which $1.9 billion was spent by the NDIS on therapy (12% of all NDIS expenditure). An average of $6,494 was spent per participant on therapy. Total payments by the Scheme in 2020-21 were $23.3 billion, with $2.8 billion spent on capacity building supports for daily activities, including therapy.
The cost for the NDIS is increasing by 10% annually despite the MBS schedule refund fees remaining the same. The cost of therapy per participant has increased each year and the number of therapy support providers has more than doubled. The fees specialists charged to the NDIS are above those charged to other schemes. Several items that could be considered for change include, funding levels should continue to be set in line with sustainable and efficient price levels and indexed in line with movements in the input costs of efficient sustainable providers. There is also a current annual review of the pricing, to ensure sustainability.
Stephen Mason, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Patients Association, is the ‘Voice’ of the patients in the Australian Healthcare system. The APA is an independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to championing and protecting the rights and interests of all patients and improving overall patient care and health outcomes. They support, inform, educate and advocate for patients.
The current focus of the APA include: waiting times for elective surgery; vaccine roll-out and hesitancy; out of pocket ‘shock’ costs; waiting times and poor communication in the emergency department; waiting times for ambulances and ambulance ramping; lack of ICU beds in Sydney and Melbourne.
7 APRIL 2022 | www.anzcp.org