NHCDC Independent Financial Review 2020-21
Date published: 3 March 2023
The National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) is the primary data collection that the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) relies on to calculate the national efficient price used for the funding of public hospital services. To ensure that the quality of NHCDC data is robust and fit for purpose, IHACPA commissions an independent financial review (IFR) to assess whether all participating hospitals have included appropriate costs and patient activity.
IHACPA engaged KPMG to review a sample of the NHCDC data submitted by states and territories for the financial year 2020-21.
The objective of the IFR 2020-21 was to assess compliance to the Australian Hospital Patient Costing Standards (AHPCS) Version 4.1 across jurisdictions, and to assess the accuracy and completeness of hospital financial reconciliations.
Cost allocation methodologies and the costing processes of different models of care for two focus areas were reviewed including:
- Haemodialysis (AR-DRG L61Z)
- Chemotherapy (AR-DRG R63Z).
The IFR 2020-21 found that participating jurisdictions have suitable reconciliation processes in place and the costed data set is considered fit for purpose for the NHCDC submission. The impact of COVID-19 on the NHCDC submission varied across jurisdictions.
IHACPA requests jurisdictions to provide a NHCDC Data Quality Statement with their annual NHCDC submission. The NHCDC Data Quality Statements 2020-21 for all jurisdictions include:
- A signed declaration by the head of its health department regarding their jurisdictions’ application of the AHPCS Version 4.1.
- Governance and data quality assurance processes implemented by jurisdictions.