Bundled payments – what makes them work? and MoU signing

The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) is entering an exciting partnership with the University of Sydney's Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics.

To kick off the collaboration, Dr Sarah Neville, IHACPA’s Director of Analytics delivered a seminar on bundled payments on Monday 4 December 2023.

The session concludes with a short Q&A session facilitated by Prof Kees van Gool (Executive Director of Pricing and Analytics, IHACPA), and ceremonial speeches from Prof Michael Pervan (Chief Executive Officer, IHACPA) and Prof Benjamin Eggleston (Professor of Physics, University of Sydney), before signing a memorandum of understanding.

35:13 - Q&A session
47:45 - Prof Michael Pervan
59:44 - Prof Benjamin Eggleston


About the seminar
Value-based health care has been lauded as the new paradigm to curb health spending and improve quality of care worldwide. Many forms of value-based payment models exist, with one of the most promising being bundled payments, where payments are made to health providers for a clinically defined episode or bundle of related health care services. Under a bundled payment model, the provider assumes the risk – they are required to cover the total payments for the bundle of services, even if they exceed the price, but they also share in any savings when the total payments for the bundle of services is below the price.

For her Senior Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice in 2022-23, Sarah Neville PhD undertook research to gain first-hand knowledge of bundled payment models. This included analysis of how the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of these models in the US determined their success. The research had particular focus on how risk is managed in the design of bundled payment models, and whether historically marginalised populations have equitable coverage and outcomes.

About the speaker
Sarah Neville PhD is a Senior Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice and is currently the Director, Analytics at IHACPA. Sarah has worked in the Australian health system for over 10 years, setting the price of hospital services to make hospital funding more transparent and equitable. She joined IHACPA in 2013 and has since held successive roles including Director of Pricing, Executive Director of Data and Analytics, Senior Advisor of Statistics and Research. Sarah is passionate about the power of statistics to inform evidence-based policy, both in Australia and internationally. Her interests lie in health funding systems, particularly innovative funding models, as well as women in STEM leadership. She is the current chair of the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics Advisory Committee at the University of Wollongong, where she completed a PhD in mathematical statistics.

About IHACPA
IHACPA is an independent federal government agency that supports the Australian Government to fund public hospitals and aged care services more efficiently. 
Established in 2011, IHACPA uses data and consults widely to determine the annual cost and price of public hospital services and provide advice to inform government decisions on the cost and price of aged care services.

About the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics
The Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Sydney gathers experts in health policy, economics and health services research to produce high-quality analyses of current issues, deliver public seminars and education programs and undertake comprehensive research projects.  

www.ihacpa.gov.au