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Hospital Circular 23/1998
Date Issued:
10 December, 1998
Publication: 23/1998
Contact: Regional Office
Distribution:Public Hospitals,
Extended Care Centres
Subject:
- Changes in Fees for admitted VWA patients
- TAC and VWA invoices
1. Changes in Fees for admitted VWA patients
1.1 Base Fee
Effective on or after 1 July 1998 fees
for VWA compensable separations will be based on AN-DRGs Version 3.1 and
the Victorian Department of Human Services cost weights specified below.
The formula for conversion of low and high outlier separations into inlier
equivalent separations will be the same as the general hospital casemix
funding formula as set out in the Department of Human Services Victoria
- Public Hospitals Policy and Funding Guidelines, as amended from
time to time. Those Guidelines are available on the Internet site:
For acute episodes of care, the base fee for VWA separations on or after 1 July 1998 until further notice is $1,933 per Weighted Inlier Equivalent Separation (WIES6)
1.2 Admission criteria
VWA compensable patients should only be admitted to hospital in accordance with the Minimum Criteria for Admission as specified in Circular 15/1998 as may be amended or replaced. Circular 15/1998, which replaced Circular 19/1993, has been distributed to public and private hospitals and day procedure centres. Requests for copies can be made to Acute Health, PRS/2 Help Desk, on (03) 9616 8141.
1.3 Rehabilitation
Effective on or after 15 December 1998 the following fees apply for patients admitted to rehabilitation programs designated by the Department of Human Services:
Level 1 (Care Type 2): $345 per day
Level 2 (Care Type 6): $287 per day
Level 3 (Care Type 7): $287 per day
1.4 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Fees for VWA Patients
The single fee for which VWA patients may be charged has been changed to $575, effective 1 November 1998. VWA has adopted the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) eligibility requirements in relation to MRI providers, equipment and services.
1.5 Administrative changes
For the purposes of generating accounts, to trigger the production of VWA Statements at Allegiance Systems (formerly called Health Computing Services), hospitals are required to re-transmit the Diagnosis Record X1 for all VWA patients separated on or after 1 July 1998.
The requirement to record Hospital Name and Hospital Code on the VWA Admitted Patient AN-DRG Statement has been removed.
1.6. Fees Manual
As a result of the above changes,
could you please make the following updates to the Fees and Charges
for Acute Health Services in Victoria: A Handbook for Public Hospitals:
replace
pages 13 to 17, in part 1, Fees for Admitted Patients, with the attached
pages.
(Word doc)
2. TAC & VWA invoices
Departmental Circular 10/98 requested all Victorian public hospitals requested not to bill TAC and VWA for casemix funded separations until further notice. Public hospitals in Victoria can now bill (ie send invoices to) TAC effective since November 1998, and VWA effective 21 December 1998, for casemix funded separations. This advice follows resolution of refinements to the ICD-10-AM to ICD-9-CM mapping tables.
DR CHRIS BROOK
DIRECTOR
ACUTE HEALTH
