Heads of Agreement between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories on public hospital funding
The Heads of Agreement between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories on public hospital funding and health reform was considered by COAG and signed by the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Western Australia on 9 February 2018.
The new five-year national health agreement (NHA) is set to commence on 1 July 2020 and conclude on 30 June 2025.
A number of things are worth pointing out -
The overall theme of the agreement is around value and outcomes:
i. Better coordinated care, particularly for patients with complex and chronic disease
ii. Funding and pricing for safety and quality, to avoid funding unnecessary or unsafe care
iii. Reducing avoidable re-admissions to hospital
iv. The Commonwealth continuing to focus on reforms in primary care that are designed to improve patient outcomes and reduce avoidable hospital admissions
Further new long-term system wide reforms agreed for further development by the COAG Health Council (CHC):
i. Paying for value and outcomes
ii. Joint planning and funding at a local level
iii. Nationally cohesive health technology assessment
iv. Empowering people through health literacy; v. Prevention and well-being
v. Enhanced health data (including health system data and developing a Commonwealth-State primary and community care data set to inform the development of quality indicators)
MTAA is working to better understand the Commonwealth focus of progressing a nationally cohesive HTA framework.
Additionally, the Commonwealth will provide $100 million for a Health Innovation Fund, with project criteria to be agreed by COAG by 1 July 2018, to fund trials that support health prevention and the better use of health data.
