National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) Public Sector 2021–22
Date published: 30 July 2022
The National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) for the public sector, collected through the states and territories, is the primary data collection used to develop the national efficient price.
The NHCDC Data Request Specifications contain detailed guidance regarding the submission of 2021–22 NHCDC data.
For the 2021-22 financial year, IHACPA received data from 667 hospitals (including health service providers), an increase of 18 from the NHCDC Public Sector 2020-21. This includes 48.0 million patient encounters across Australia.
The total expenditure submitted in the NHCDC Public Sector 2020-21 is $61.9 billion, an 8.7% increase from the previous year of $57.0 billion.
The appendix to the NHCDC Public Sector Report contains detailed tables relating to the collection.
IHACPA undertook a review of the NHCDC Public Sector 2021-22. The objectives of the review were to confirm that jurisdictions included appropriate costs and patient activity and correctly applied version 4.1 of the Australian Hospital Patient Costing Standards (AHPCS).
IHACPA requests jurisdictions provide a Data Quality Statement (DQS) with their annual NHCDC submission. The DQS allows jurisdictions to provide additional information about their data submission, which may be pertinent in processing or interpreting the data.