Virtual Care Project - Final Report

Key findings

The Virtual Care Project Final Report outlines the current challenges in capturing virtual care activity and cost data and provide a roadmap for future action. The key findings include:

• all virtual care models identified by stakeholders that are in-scope for National Health Reform Agreement funding have existing activity based funding (ABF) or block funding arrangements
• while most models can be reported in the existing activity and cost data collected by IHACPA, they may not be specifically and easily identifiable under current reporting specifications
• there is inconsistent inclusion and allocation of the costs associated with virtual care in national costing
• broader health system challenges may be further increased by the emergence of virtual care as it breaks down the boundaries of the health system across primary care, aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Key recommendations

The report identifies 5 key recommendations for IHACPA, in collaboration with other Australian Government agencies and health departments. The recommendations seek to improve the integration of virtual care into pricing and funding models and develop a national strategy by:

• developing a national definition and taxonomy of virtual care
• improving the visibility of virtual care in national data collections
• improving national consistency in the identification and allocation of virtual care costs
• considering supplementary collections to the National Hospital Cost Data Collection to cost service innovations, including virtual care
• developing a pathway to facilitate the transition of service innovations to ABF or alternative funding models that improve value.

Our engagement

As part of the Virtual Care Project, insights were considered from approximately 160 stakeholders. This includes representatives from Australian and international health departments, Australian Government agencies, industry and research groups, peak bodies, and clinical and hospital groups.

Thank you to everyone who participated and provided input. 

Next steps

IHACPA is considering the insights within the report and developing a staged implementation plan, with continuing stakeholder engagement planned as this work progresses.