Activity Based Funding

In early 2010 the Australian Government released the proposal to reform the Australian health system, entitled "A National Health and Hospitals Network for Australia's Future". A key feature of this reform is the national introduction of Activity Based Funding (ABF).

The Australian refined diagnosis-related groups (AR-DRG) classification will be used to define and count acute admitted patient ‘activity’, other ABF classifications are being developed by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) for the purposes of classifying other ‘activities’.

IHPA will play a pivotal role in ABF through the key functions, outlined in the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA). These functions are outlined in section B3 of the NHRA:

National Health Reform Agreement

Page currency, Latest update: 15 December, 2011