Transcript Document
Casemix & Activity Based Funding
Developments in Australia
Philip Burgess & Tim Coombs
AMHOIC: 13 June 2013
A joint Australian, State and
Territory Government Initiative
"It’s time to remember NOCC
is also about casemix:
Australian casemix
development in mental health"
Philip Burgess, Analysis & Reporting
AMHOC: 19 November 2010
A joint Australian, State and
Territory Government Initiative
Mental Health Outcomes in Australia: The future of information development in practice
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What we talked about then …
Casemix 101
Casemix Myths:
Not just DRGs – there are over 100 casemix
classification systems;
Not a payment system: but a tool that can be
used for payment purposes
Not about reducing quality of care – but a tool that
can be used to look at relationship between
quality & cost
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Diagnosis Related Groups
The most widely used casemix
classification
Used to classify acute admitted care
Not used for non-admitted care
Classes defined by principal medical
diagnosis, plus variables such as other
diagnoses, age and procedures
These variables are ‘cost-drivers’
They drive (predict) the cost of acute care
But they have not proven to be good predictors
of the cost of mental health
Problems with DRG-centred
models
DRGs don't work for many case types:
mental health
rehabilitation
chronic illness
palliative care
intensive care
Because the
principal diagnosis
is not the main
cost driver
DRGs not sufficiently refined in some areas
multiple conditions
principal diagnosis
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MH-CASC findings
There is an underlying episode classification,
not just in inpatient care but also community;
Modest but acceptable levels of variation
explained;
The costs being driven by ‘casemix’ are often
confounded by the costs driven by provider
variations
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MH-CASC findings
The variables driving costs in inpatient
settings are also driving costs in the
community but:
the
patterns of care are different …. so
….
the importance of the variables differs
across the two settings (e.g., focus of
care)
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MH-CASC based on:
DIAGNOSIS
SEVERITY, using the HoNOS scales as the
main measure
LEVEL OF FUNCTIONING, measured through
an amended Life Skills Profile (adults) or
child/adolescent specific measures; and
Other CLINICAL AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC
characteristics e.g., age
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Some indicative comparisons:
% RIV Completed Inpatient Episodes
1997 – AR-DRGs (V3) – costs 11.3% (8
classes);
1997 – MH-CASC – costs 17.3% (9 classes);
2009 – AR-DRGs (V6) – LOS 15.1% (9
classes);
2009 – MH-CASC – LOS 22.7%
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Reflections 2010
A better system than DRGs but not great;
No real appetite among stakeholders for its
implementation:
other than the NOCC was designed to capture to
necessary clinical attributes; but
Linkages to costing and activity collections
remained unresolved
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2011: Brave New World
National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA)
Signed by COAG 31 July 2011
Health system splits into 5:
Hospitals - State responsibility
Private sector primary care - Commonwealth responsibility
“Aged care” – Commonwealth responsibility
Disability services - State responsibility
Community health, population health and public health - State
responsibility
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Commonwealth Premise
Hospitals - big white buildings surrounded by
a fence
Everything outside the fence is either ‘primary
care’ or ‘aged care’ or a ‘disability service’
no terms defined
Specialist services outside the fence (public
and private) not adequately recognised or
addressed
Hospitals the centre of the health reform
Commonwealth role
Pay a ‘national efficient price’ for every public
hospital service
Fund States (and through them LHNs) a
contribution for:
teaching, training and research
block funding for small public hospitals
Agreement has detailed arrangements for
defining a ‘hospital’ service that the
Commonwealth will partly fund
Scope of Commonwealth funding
Hospital services provided to both public and private
patients in a range of settings and funded either:
on an activity basis or
through block grants, including in rural and regional communities;
teaching and training undertaken in public hospitals or
other organisations (such as universities and training
providers)
research funded by States undertaken in public hospitals
and
public health activities managed by States
Community health not included unless a “hospital service”
2012: Activity Based Funding
From 1 July 2012, funding is to be based
on ABF principles.
ABF means exactly what it says – providers
are funded based on the activity they
undertake.
Because most hospital activity involves
treating patients – or cases – the term
‘casemix funding’ is also used.
“Nationally Efficient Price”
Different classifications for different streams
and different prices for ‘activities’ within
streams
acute admitted
emergency department
subacute &
outpatient services
No special provisions for mental health
National ABF – the IHPA
approach
Acute - AR-DRG
Subacute and non-acute - AN-SNAP
ED - Urgency Related Groups - URGs or
Urgency Disposition Groups - UDGs
Outpatients - Tier 2 clinic list
Mental health – new mental health
classification to be developed
Current project is the first step in the process
and needs to ‘fit’ into this broader context
What to do with Mental Health?
A prerequisite for ABF is that ‘activity’ is
classified and counted
But MH services are complex and don’t
neatly fit the kinds of care models used in
other health sectors
Moreover, technically, MH casemix models
are “modest”
Steps in developing a Mental
Health ABF model
Define the scope of ‘activity’
for ABF purposes
Agree on how to count that
activity
Develop a classification
framework
Determine the Nationally
Efficient Price for MH
2013
2014
Steps in developing an ABF
model
Define the scope of the ‘activity’ for ABF
purposes
Agree on how to count activity
Boundaries with other IHPA classifications
What is a mental health ‘activity’ for ABF purposes?
Develop a classification framework
A classification not just for IHPA pricing purposes but
more broadly (states, territories, private hospital sector)
There may be classes in the classification that are
deemed to be out of scope for IHPA pricing purposes
But pricing is a separate issue
IHPA: Stage A
Defining the scope of mental
health services for classification
purposes
A joint Australian, State and
Territory Government Initiative
Mental Health Care Type
5. Mental health care is care in which the
primary clinical purpose or treatment goal is
improvement in the symptoms and/or
psychosocial, environmental and physical
functioning related to a patient’s mental
disorder.
Mental health care is always:
delivered under the management of, or regularly
informed by, a clinician with specialised expertise
in mental health; and
evidenced by an individualised formal mental
health assessment and the implementation of a
documented mental health plan.
IHPA: Stage B
Identifying Cost Drivers in Mental
Health & Developing a
Classification Framework
A joint Australian, State and
Territory Government Initiative
Proposed mental health
information architecture
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Why a phase?
A
B
Illness
Service
Contacts
1
Episode
of Care
2
Inpatient
CO1
Acuity of
Symptoms
Community Residential
4
Ambulatory
CO3
CO2
B
A
3
COR
CO4
D
C
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Development pathway
What unit of counting?
What data items to collect and analyse?
How to develop the classification?
Same level for the whole classification or
Different levels for different branches?
via a one-off study (as MH-CASC was in the
1990s) or
A series of one-off studies or
through analysis of routinely collected data (as
AR-DRGs are developed)?
Implementation issues?
One important
implementation issue
In practice, the scope of the mental health
classification will be determined by the information
that is collected. A patient episode can only be
assigned to a class in the mental health
classification if:
The episode is classified to the Mental Health Care Type
AND
The information required to assign a patient episode to a
class is both collected and reported
No information, no class
Have a class for ‘Mental health not further specified’?
One important
implementation issue
What to do about episodes assigned to the Mental
Health Care Type without the required clinical
information?
Default to the next relevant Care Type in the algorithm
OR
Have a class for ‘Mental health not further specified’?