Hospital Circular 08/2006: Hospital Circulars - Department of Health, Victoria, Australia

Hospital Circular 08/2006

Date Issued: 13 June 2006

Publication: 8/2006

Distribution: Public Hospitals

Attention: Public Hospitals, Extended Care Centres, Metropolitan Health Services, and Regional Offices

Subjects: Public Hospital fees – Changes

Private Admitted Patients - overnight stays, same day patients and hospital outreach service patients
Compensable Admitted Patients (excluding WorkCover and TAC recipients)
Nursing Home Patients (NHTP)

PUBLIC HOSPITAL FEES - CHANGES

(i) Private Admitted Patients - overnight stay, same day and hospital outreach service patients.

The Commonwealth has advised that the overnight accommodation basic default benefits for shared ward acute hospital treatment in public hospitals in Victoria, and for hospital outreach services, will be increased by 3.0% (CPI movement for Australia March quarter 2005 to March quarter 2006). Accordingly the State Department of Human Services (DHS) has determined that effective 1 July 2006, Victorian public hospital private admitted patient bed day rates for 2005/2006 for private admitted: shared overnight stays, shared ward same day stays, and outreach hospital services stays will increase by 3.0%.

The private admitted single room accommodation rates for acute treatment is not subject to a Commonwealth default benefit. The State Department has increased the published rate for the private admitted single room overnight rate by 3.5% on the 2005/2006 rates. The private admitted single room same day rate remains unchanged.

(ii) Compensable Admitted Patients (excluding WorkCover and TAC recipients)

The State Department has increased the published rate for compensable admitted patients by 3.5% on the 2005/2006 rates.

(iii) Nursing Home Patients (NHTP)

The State Department has not increased the bed day charges for NHTPs for over 3 years. To bring Victoria’s charges into parity with other States, this will be increased incrementally during 2006/07. From 1 July 2006 the rate will increase by $3 to $86.15.

Should the State Department further wish to amend any of the above the published 2006/2007 private patient accommodation charges, hospitals will be notified by DHS Hospitals Circular.

It is of course a matter for individual hospitals to weigh up the various considerations in charging the published public hospital single accommodation charge. Considerations might include the benefit health funds will assign to the public hospital; the co-payment a partially covered patient is willing to pay as an elected private patient; and – subject to sound internal polices and practice, - the amount of co-payment (eg front end deductible) a hospital can viably forgo.

Published rates for 2006/2007 are as follows:

Table 1 - Private Overnight Stay

Patient Classification	Length of Stay	Fee per day ($)
Patient Classification	Length of Stay	Shared	Single
Advanced Surgical	1 - 14 days 15 + days	325 226	611 473
Surgical/Obstetric	1 - 14 days 15 + days	301 226	580 473
Other	1 - 14 days 15 + days	262 226	510 473
Psychiatric	1 - 42 days 43 - 65 days 66 + days	301 262 226	580 510 473
Rehabilitation	1 - 49 days 50 - 65 days 66 + days	301 262 226	580 510 473

Table 2 - Private Same Day Admissions

Band	Fee Shared	Fee Single room
Band 1	190	256
Band 2	226	306
Band 3	262	354
Band 4	301	407

Table 3 - Hospital Outreach Services

$162 per day, effective 1 July 2006.

Table 4 - Compensable Admitted Patients (excluding WorkCover and TAC recipients)

Patient Classification	Length of Stay	Fee per day ($)
Advanced Surgical	1 - 14 days 15 + days	591 308
Surgical/Obstetric	1 - 14 days 15 + days	539 308
Other	1 - 14 days 15 + days	539 308
Psychiatric	1 - 42 days 43 - 65 days 66 + days	347 308 279
Rehabilitation	1 - 49 days 50 - 65 days 66 + days	505 308 233
Geriatric		308
Nursing Home Patient		180
Same Day Patient		432

Table 5 - Nursing Home Patients (NHTP)

$86.13 per day, effective 1 July 2006.

Public hospitals are reminded that:

Fees for patients in single bed rooms are to be charged only when a patient is accommodated in the single bed room by his or her choice (that is, a patient accommodated in a single room for medical reasons is not to be charged single room rates); and
The private bed day fees exclude private patient charges for surgically implanted prostheses, human tissue items, and other medical devices.

Lance Wallace
Acting Executive Director
Metropolitan Health and Aged Care Services