Activity Based Funding Implementation Plan 2021-2023 - Progress in a COVID environment
Brian Donovan a
Introduction
Following the worldwide pandemic and its impact on Ireland's health service, the Healthcare Pricing Office (HPO) has published publish the second Implementation Plan for Activity Based Funding (ABF) in Ireland, as part of a programme of work to support the delivery of the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy.
This Plan, when implemented, will represent an important step forward in increasing transparency in funding, encouraging efficiency, value for money and sustainability, and ultimately providing greater accountability for the way resources are allocated in the Irish healthcare system
This implementation plan follows on from the first plan created with the formation of the HPO in 2015 and aims to further advance ABF in Ireland.
This presentation will outline the main areas of the plan and demonstrate the significant progress to date notwithstanding the impact of the pandemic on both ABF in Ireland and the work of the HPO.
Methods
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the healthcare system and has created major challenges for in accounting for new and unknown patterns of healthcare usage and costs. Whilst emergency measures have included temporary increases to block funding, ABF and its building blocks have proved useful in providing the information needed to monitor the impact and effects of the disease and make important decisions as to where resources should be deployed, and will continue to be critical for health system insights and funding into the future.
The implementation plan contains 35 objectives covering areas including data quality, training, policies and governance across all data streams such as admitted care, ED care, outpatient care and community care. The presentations will consider the work to date and identify the challenges so far, with the aim of identifying the focus for the remainder of the plan.
Results
While the plan has been recently published, it has been in preparation during the COVID period and so work on the objectives has commenced in parallel. COVID-19 has demonstrated the significant capacity of the health system to respond effectively to the need for rapid change and improvement The presentation will show the substantial progress made by the HPO to date on the plan despite the competing pandemic response requirements on HPO resources.
Conclusions
The Implementation Plan signals a shift from the necessary foundational and technical work around the costing and pricing of services towards creating a more holistic healthcare resourcing and purchasing process that links insights from key clinical, operational and patient stakeholders, with the core Sláintecare intent around integrated care, in the least complex setting appropriate, as close to home as practical.
a Healthcare Pricing Office, Ireland
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