On the 23rd of September our Federal Health Minister spoke at the Annual MTAA Conference.
This speech is reported here:
Nicola Roxon takes whip to 'cowboy' marketing
Siobhain Ryan | September 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
CANBERRA will target its $14.8 billion Medicare system for major savings and crack down on "cowboy" marketing practices for flashy new medical technologies.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has issued a strongly worded challenge to doctors, drug and medical device makers to stop resisting reform and to help trim costs by backing more cost-effective technologies.
"It is frustrating that wherever I go I find almost universal agreement that we need reform and to use taxpayer funds more wisely, but it is always with a 'not in my backyard' caveat," Ms Roxon told the annual conference of the Medical Technology Association of Australia in Sydney yesterday.
"When we spend $14.8bn a year on the MBS, there are clearly some major savings to be made," she added.
Doctors, pathologists and drug companies all suffered cuts to their taxpayer-funded fees in this year's budget, with the government signalling more pain could follow next year to help finance its ambitious health reform agenda.
Last month, Kevin Rudd outlined plans to regularly review the effectiveness of subsidised medical treatments and cut funding from those found to be ineffective.
Ms Roxon said the current review of the way Canberra assesses health technologies, to report at the end of this year, would drive the Prime Minister's push for accountability. She said one area of savings would be to wean doctors and patients off the "flashiest technologies" in favour of better-value ones.
More here:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26117209-23289,00.html
For those of us interested in e-Health we find the following in related to e-Health.
“What savings can pay for
All of this is just by way of explaining that we need to look at a smarter use of our health budget because the reform directions proposed by the Commission, whilst exciting and far reaching, do not come cheap.
The Commission estimates its recommendations could cost more than $5 billion per annum, plus $4 billion a year for a national dental scheme, and system wide capital costs of up to $7 billion. Others have already indicated these costs may be rather low estimates.
Think of the potential offered by the introduction of person-controlled electronic health records. The Commission recommends we do this by 1 July 2012, and estimates the cost at somewhere between $1.1 and $1.8 billion.
An electronic health record really does have the potential to revolutionise how we deliver health care services.
It is estimated that 30 to 50 per cent of patients with chronic disease are hospitalised because of inadequate care management.
An Electronic Health Record would mean patients will be able to present for health service treatment anywhere in the country, and with patient approval, the treating health professional will be able to access a summary of the patient’s treatment and medication history at the touch of a button.
For health professionals, this will mean that less valuable time is lost, expensive tests are not being re-ordered or duplicated at a cost to the taxpayer, and knowledge is shared.
In fact, it has been estimated that up to 18 per cent of medical errors are attributed to inadequate availability of patient information, and between 9 and 17 per cent of pathology and diagnostic tests are unnecessary duplicates. When we spend $14.8 billion a year on the MBS, there are clearly some major savings to be made.
The Commission’s report is quite clearly excited by the potential shift towards more personal, patient-centred health care that e-health and medical technology can help create.
I said earlier it will require leadership from the profession and the industry to help us realize this potential.”
The full speech is found here:
I am really getting a little tired of this approach of linking the fate of e-Health in Australia to savings being made elsewhere in the budget.
This is genuinely 19th Century thinking in my view. The government has cost benefit studies from NEHTA, The Allen Consulting Group and KPMG, among others, all of which show e-Health done properly will actually save money in considerable quantities.
The evidence for this (in Australia) is quite well summarised here:
as well as in the NHHRC final report (in a slightly confused way) and here:
http://www.accesseconomics.com.au/publicationsreports/getreport.php?report=201&id=257
Ms Roxon needs to just stop running this silly line and get the Health Sector’s share of the Stimulus Funds spent in this area! (given health has missed out totally to date!)
David.
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