Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for Use in Performance Reporting
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WORKING PAPER 118 Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for use in Performance Reporting Ms Jenny Watts Lecturer, Health Economics Unit, Monash University Professor Jeff Richardson Director, Health Economics Unit, Monash University Dr Leonie Segal Deputy Director, Health Economics Unit, Monash University CENTRE PROFILE The Centre for Health Program Evaluation (CHPE) is a research and teaching organisation established in 1990 to: · undertake academic and applied research into health programs, health systems and current policy issues; · develop appropriate evaluation methodologies; and · promote the teaching of health economics and health program evaluation, in order to increase the supply of trained specialists and to improve the level of understanding in the health community. The Centre comprises two independent research units, the Health Economics Unit (HEU) which is part of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University, and the Program Evaluation Unit (PEU) which is part of the Department of General Practice and Public Health at The University of Melbourne. The two units undertake their own individual work programs as well as collaborative research and teaching activities. PUBLICATIONS The views expressed in Centre publications are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Centre or its sponsors. Readers of publications are encouraged to contact the author(s) with comments, criticisms and suggestions. A list of the Centre's papers is provided inside the back cover. Further information and copies of the papers may be obtained by contacting: The Co-ordinator Centre for Health Program Evaluation PO Box 477 West Heidelberg Vic 3081, Australia Telephone + 61 3 9496 4433/4434 Facsimile + 61 3 9496 4424 E-mail [email protected] Web Address http://ariel.unimelb.edu.au/chpe/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and undertaken by the Health Economics Unit, Monash University. The views expressed in the Report are those of the authors and are not necessarily the views of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. The Health Economics Unit of the CHPE is supported by Monash University. The Program Evaluation Unit of the CHPE is supported by The University of Melbourne. Both units obtain supplementary funding through national competitive grants and contract research. The research described in this paper is made possible through the support of these bodies. AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals and organisations have contributed to this Report. The authors would also like to thank the following individuals for their input and comments at various stages of the project. · Mr Simon Corden, Productivity Commission · Mr John Goss, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare · Ms Jo Murray, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, Casemix Branch · Dr Stuart Peacock and Mr Duncan Mortimer, Health Economics Unit, Monash University · Mr Jim Pearse, New South Wales Health · Mr Kevin Ratcliffe, Hospitals and Ambulance Service Tasmania · Mr Ian Titulaer, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare · Dr Robert Wilson, R. Wilson & Assoc. Officer of Queensland Health are also acknowledged for their valuable comments to the Draft Report. This paper is also available via the Productivity Commission’s website at: http://www.pc.gov.au/service/gsp/external/nphcostdata.pdf Table of Contents Synopsis ........................................................................................................................................... i 1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Measuring Hospital Costs .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 The Problem....................................................................................................................... 2 2 Current Measures of Hospital Costs..................................................................................... 2 2.1 Overview of the Two Data Systems................................................................................... 2 2.2 AIHW Methodology ............................................................................................................ 3 Sample ............................................................................................................................... 3 Data Type........................................................................................................................... 4 Methodology/Calculation.................................................................................................... 4 Sample ............................................................................................................................... 7 Data Type........................................................................................................................... 8 Methodology..................................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Two Models .............................................................. 12 3 Other Issues in Data Consistency....................................................................................... 13 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Capital/Depreciation......................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Treatment of Private Medical Costs................................................................................. 18 3.4 Labour On-costs/Superannuation.................................................................................... 20 3.5 Cost Modelling and Patient Level Clinical Costing Data ................................................. 20 3.6 Issues in Identifying the Acute Inpatient Population........................................................ 21 3.7 Provision of Costing Data by Small Rural Hospitals........................................................ 22 4 Purpose of Hospital Efficiency and Costing Data ............................................................. 23 5 Summary ................................................................................................................................ 29 6 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 29 References..................................................................................................................................... 30 List of Tables Table 1 Comparison of average cost per casemix-adjusted separation between AIHW and NHCDC data, by State/territory, for 1997-98 data…………………………. 3 Table 2 Expenditure categories reported by the AIHW, 1997-98………………………………. 4 Table 3 Total separations and hospitals reporting costing data t the NHCDC, 1997-98…..… 8 Table 4 Format for reporting costing data at the DRG level for hospitals using cost modelling…………………………………………………………………………………..… 9 Table 5 Format for reporting costing data at the DRG level for hospitals using patient level clinical costing………………………………………………………………. 10 Table 6 AIHW cost breakdown by state for depreciation and interest, based on aggregate reported expenditure, 1997-98…………………………………………….... 14 Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for use in Performance Reporting Table 7 NHCDC cost breakdown by state and cost categories for average cost per DRG showing the proportion of total costs for 1997-98……………………………………… 15 Table 8 NHCDC average total costs for 14 DRGs (ANDRG 3.1) for which depreciation expenditure is greater than $1,000, 1997-98 data for public hospitals……….……... 17 Table 9 Summary of the purposes of hospital costing data, data requirements and the ability of current data collections to meet these objectives…………………………… 25 Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for use in Performance Reporting 5 Synopsis Hospital cost data are collected and analysed by two bodies in Australia, the AIHW and the NHCDC. The methodologies employed to identify unit costs differ. The AIHW collection was set up to collect hospital summary statistics (including expenditure) for all public hospitals and essentially uses a ‘top down’ procedure which allocates total expenditures according to defined rules. The NHCDC was established to produce annual updates of national DRG cost weights and associated data. To achieve this the NHCDC uses disaggregated costing data collected from a sample of hospitals to report DRG average costs. This paper first describes these differences in greater detail and identifies weaknesses or problems with each of the methodologies. The adequacy of each database and of the resulting methodology depends upon the questions which each seeks to address. Secondly, therefore, the paper considers the possible uses of the data and concludes with a comparison of the relative advantages of the two databases for addressing a range of issues. Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for use in Performance Reporting i Comparing National Public Hospital Cost Data Collections for use in Performance Reporting 1 Introduction 1.1 Measuring Hospital Costs Measures of technical efficiency describe the relationship between costs and outputs, usually