Funding and Information Policy

Director: Bruce Prosser.
Executive Assistant: (61 3) 9096 1506

The Funding and Information Policy Branch comprises three sections that are responsible for the development and monitoring of state-wide funding policy and information systems. All sections provide advice within the Division, the Department of Health, and to external stakeholders.

Branch structure

• Health Information
• Funding Policy, Analysis and Reporting
• National Reform Projects

Health Information
The Health Information section is responsible for the department’s key acute health information data sets including the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED), the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD), the Elective Surgery Information System (ESIS), the Victorian Integrated Non-Admitted Health Minimum Data Set (VINAH MDS) and the Agency Information Management System (AIMS).

The section coordinates departmental involvement in the work of the National Health Information Standards and Statistics Committee (NHISSC) and related national health information bodies.

Funding Policy, Analysis and Reporting
The Victorian Government provides health services with funding based on a case-mix model. This means that hospitals are essentially funded for the type and number patients treated, and the relative cost of the patients treated. To obtain this funding, hospitals are required to comply with the government’s funding and policy guidelines.

The Funding Policy, Analysis and Reporting section is responsible for maintaining these policies and guidelines, and for developing the broad funding policy framework, principles and priorities. This is done in conjunction with the section’s budget planning and allocation work that considers trends, and the medium to long term funding needs of health services, and specially funded government projects.

Through consultation with stakeholders, the section constantly reviews existing funding models. It also researches and develops new models to promote more efficient use of funding and a more effective health system overall.
For transparency in health services’ use of funding, the section uses key acute health information data sets to generate annual and bi-annual reports on system-wide health service performance. The reports are intended for multiple audiences including the community, health services and key internal stakeholders.

National Reform Projects
The National Reform Projects unit progresses reform initiatives designed to improve efficiency and capacity in public hospitals nationally.

Activity-based funding is a major national health reform initiative on which the section is working. Activity-based funding is a case-mix approach, meaning that health service funding is determined by the types of patients a service treats. Activity-based funding is considered suitable for national implementation, however states currently have different shared health service classifications, and methods of counting and costing health service products and services.

The section reports on Victoria's activity-based funding progress, and on the department’s National Partnership Agreements and other reform obligations to the Commonwealth Government.

The section undertakes other major reform projects as determined by the department’s Executive and the Branch Director.

To progress reform initiatives, unit staff also investigate and advise on:

• the use of acute health information data sets;
• data collections; and
• other innovative case-mix/output-funding approaches.

Related information

 Specialist clinics in Victorian public hospitals: A resource kit for MBS-billed services