Australian Medical Association

In November 2008 the Council of Australian Governments' agreed to introduce a nationally-consistent approach to activity-based funding for public hospital services to allow comparisons of efficiency across public hospitals.

Subsequently, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to examine and report on the relative performance of the public and private hospital systems. In June 2009, the Productivity Commission released a paper seeking information and feedback on a range of issues including treatment costs, including out-of-pocket patient expenses and rates of fully-informed financial consent, rates of hospital-acquired infections and other relevant performance indicators.

Below are the two submissions the AMA made to the Productivity Commission on the Performance of public and private hospital systems. The AMA submissions also address the Commission's term of reference on informed financial consent.

"let's talk about fees..." campaign products

This kit assists doctors in providing information to patients about the costs of their treatment.

IFC Survey

Let's talk about fees

The AMA has a long history of promoting the principle of obtaining Informed Financial Consent (IFC) from patients as part of the doctor-patient relationship, and AMA's policy position on this issue is clearly stated in relevant AMA policy resolutions.