IHPA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is a statutory office holder and reports to the Pricing Authority, which reports to the Minister for Health.
The Executive Director, Activity Based Funding reports to the CEO and manages the Activity Based Funding branch.
James Downie
James Downie is the CEO of the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA). Read more about James Downie.
Organisational structure
Activity Based Funding
IHPA’s Activity Based Funding (ABF) branch has six teams led by an Executive Director.
Policy Development
The team develops ABF policy across IHPA including matters relating to the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services, the National Efficient Price and the National Efficient Cost Determinations.
Data Acquisition
The Data Acquisition team works with states and territories to develop appropriate data specifications, and to acquire, validate and maintain data in the IHPA information technology environment. The team provides analytical support to the various teams in the ABF branch.
Classification and Coding Standards
The Classification and Coding Standards team works with clinical, technical and jurisdictional stakeholders to develop and maintain the clinical classifications, coding standards and business rules associated with the implementation of a nationally consistent ABF framework for public hospital services. The work of the team covers five work streams, in addition to providing input to mental health care.
- Admitted acute care
- Non-admitted care
- Subacute and non-acute care
- Emergency care
- Teaching, training and research.
Mental Health Care
The Mental Health Care team works with key stakeholders, largely through IHPA’s Mental Health Working Group to develop a new national classification for mental health care to enable ABF for mental health care services.
Hospital Costing
The Hospital Costing team works with stakeholders to coordinate the collection, validation, analysis and reporting of the National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC), in conjunction with states and territories and private hospitals. To ensure the NHCDC can continue to be a well-informed evidence based data collection, the Hospital Costing team also conduct specific costing studies.
Pricing
The Pricing team develops the statistical models that underpin IHPA’s determination of the National Efficient Price and the National Efficient Cost. It does this by developing costing models that best explain the expenditure of Local Hospital Networks (LHNs) nationally, and applying the policies contained within IHPA’s Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services.
Office of the CEO
The Office of the CEO supports the CEO and IHPA in all ministerial, government and parliamentary matters as well as internal and external communications. This includes secretariat services, parliamentary correspondence, media, stakeholder engagement and website management.
The team is responsible for the management of licensing Australian Refined Diagnostic Related Groups (AR-DRGs) and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) to local and international markets.
Corporate Services
Corporate Services provide business support services in the areas of finance, human resource management, procurement, information and communication technology and governance.