Catholic not-for-profit hospitals are warning of the cancellation of a range of procedures and the winding back of services in regional areas due to ‘reforms’ made by former Health Minister Greg Hunt before the last election. Under the proposed policy change over 400 medical devices, essential during certain surgeries, were removed from the list of devices that need to be covered by private health insurance. The policy appears to be continuing under the new government, despite advice from the Department of Health and Aged Care’s own Clinical Implementation Reference Group and a report the Department commissioned from EY that it should not proceed without an alternative funding arrangement in place. “These devices will still need to be used to perform procedures in hospitals, but their cost – estimated to be some $100 million a year for our 85 Catholic hospitals – will no longer covered by insurance,” said Catholic Health Australia Health Policy Director Caitlin O’Dea. “Not-for-profit hospitals have no other bucket of money that can cover this so the natural result will be procedures withdrawn, or regional services will shut. This would then heap pressure on public hospitals. “Our mission is always to serve those whose needs are greatest, particularly in regional Australia, but we can only keep doing this if these items are fully funded. “Private health insurers have been let off the hook for covering key devices. The Department can either put those items back on the list or force insurers to pay for them but they can’t expect us to perform these operations and lose money doing so.” Across Catholic hospitals, over 70 per cent of the surgical admissions that will be impacted are performed on women. This includes complex patients undertaking breast and ovarian cancer surgery, gynaecological surgery, caesarean births, and bariatric surgery. “Right now private hospitals perform over 90 per cent of bariatric surgeries in Australia – mostly on women. If they are forced to cut back these uneconomic procedures, where will patients go?” Ms O’Dea said.
About us:
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) is Australia’s largest non-government grouping of health and aged care services accounting for approximately 10 percent of hospital-based healthcare in Australia. Our members also provide around 25 percent of private hospital care, 5 percent of public hospital care, 12 percent of aged care facilities, and 20 percent of home care and support for the elderly.
