Insights from the
front line.
Analysis and commentary on Australia's private health system — regulatory shifts, commercial strategy, and the decisions that shape the sector.
Politics before Patients
The release of the Private Hospital Sector Financial Health Check is an underwhelming response to the viability challenges facing hospitals. At a time when the sector needed clear leadership, what was delivered said little and promised nothing.
Read AnalysisDangerous Gamble
Healthscope has announced patients from Bupa and AHSA funds will face daily co-payments from 26 November — a clear breach of their contracts. Will this dangerous gamble pay off, or could it backfire badly?
Read AnalysisNegotiating with Health Funds: The Top Three Mistakes I See Hospitals Making
Negotiating with health funds is no small feat. For many hospital providers, the deck is already stacked against you — but avoiding these three common mistakes can make all the difference.
Read AnalysisMaternity Services, the Canary in the Coal Mine
The slow death of private maternity services across Australia should be a wake-up call to all stakeholders. At least ten private maternity services have closed in recent years — and this is no aberration.
Read AnalysisAustralia's Dirty Truth — Non-Universal Healthcare
Australians now pay the highest out-of-pocket healthcare costs in the nation's history. As costs rise and coverage erodes, the gap between our rhetoric of universal healthcare and the lived reality grows wider by the year.
Read AnalysisWhy Private Health Needs a Separation of Church and State
Insurers becoming providers of healthcare creates conflicts of interest our legislation never contemplated. Just as democracy requires the separation of church and state, private health requires an enforced separation of payer and provider.
Read AnalysisMind Your Step
The appointment of Ed Close as nib's incoming CEO was not well received by the market. His first major decision — who replaces him as CEO of Australian Resident Health Insurance — will set the tone for his entire tenure.
Read AnalysisPrivate Health's Changing of the Guard
The announced retirements of Mark Fitzgibbon at nib and Craig McNally at Ramsay mark the end of an era. Their successors inherit vastly different businesses — one under siege, one handed the keys to a golden kingdom.
Read AnalysisIt's Time for a Hospital Buying Group
Health insurers have used buying groups for decades to level the negotiating field. With viability now a serious risk for many small hospital operators, it's time hospitals asked why they haven't done the same.
Read AnalysisWhy Big Hospital Terminations Are Bad News for Small Providers
When St Vincent's terminated with nib, smaller hospital operators cheered. They shouldn't have. Every time a large group wins a big increase through termination, it comes at the expense of what's left for everyone else.
Read AnalysisThe Real Risk for nib — The Domino Effect
With the St Vincent's termination still unresolved, the real threat to nib isn't the loss of one hospital group — it's the domino effect as every other hospital provider in the country watches and waits.
Read AnalysisSt Vincent's Hospitals and nib Health Fund — A Dangerous Game of Chicken
St Vincent's termination with nib is an intentional strategy, well planned and well executed — so far. But it's a dangerous game of brinkmanship that could make or break the hospital group entirely.
Read AnalysisAustralia's Hidden Tax Increase — The Rebate Adjustment Factor
Most Australians holding private health insurance have never heard of the Rebate Adjustment Factor. But since 2014, it has quietly reduced the government's rebate contribution from 30% to 24.06% — and the bill has been passed directly to consumers.
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