The Business Council of Australia (BCA) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Private Hospital Data Collection Framework – Consultation Paper. The BCA represents over 130 of Australia’s leading businesses, employing over 1.1 million people, including businesses that deliver health and care services.

The BCA advocates for the efficient and effective delivery of services in the health and care economy and for achieving improved outcomes for Australians accessing these services, whilst ensuring funding is sustainable. The role of the private sector is essential in realising these objectives. Public and private sector collaboration and investment are required to respond to future demand, new models of care and delivery of services.

Australia tops the world in the latest world health rankings. This emphasises the success of Australia’s mixed public and private system.

Approximately 45 per cent of Australians have hospital treatment included in their private health insurance membership, and nearly 55 per cent of Australians have general treatment membership. Private hospitals manage 40 per cent of hospitalisations and deliver 60 per cent of elective surgery.

If patient care was only available in public hospitals, the health system would be overwhelmed, limiting access to essential health care, which would have the most profound impact on vulnerable communities who can be more reliant on the public system.

The BCA is cognisant of the ongoing financial challenges facing the health and care system, particularly the challenges private hospitals are experiencing. We acknowledge the Australian Government has sought to understand the scale of these issues by undertaking a Private Hospital Sector Financial Check (Health Check).

The Health Check found several factors are negatively impacting private hospitals’ financial viability, including workforce shortages, revenue not keeping up with inflation, increased input costs, such as wages, changes in demand for services and delayed capital expenditure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BCA notes that as part of the Health Check, the Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department) undertook an extensive data collection exercise. As such, we suggest that any further requests for additional data should be for the purpose of achieving a clear objective.

The Department needs to clearly articulate the problem to be solved and the purpose for which the data will be used. Without clear objectives pertaining to the intended use, we are concerned the data collection exercise will have little to no meaningful impact for private hospitals or for Australians seeking access to services.

The Department currently has access to a comprehensive range of data sets. It is difficult to determine whether the proposed new data collection is appropriate, or necessary.

The BCA is also concerned with the process for this consultation. The Department continues to address broader health and care policy, including private health in a siloed manner. A much more holistic approach needs to be taken towards the future sustainability of the health sector.

The BCA encourages the Department to review our submission to the Private Health Reform Options Paper – Consultation paper in parallel to this letter.

Read our submission here.