Tier 2 Non-Admitted Services Classification
Tier 2 categorises a hospital’s non-admitted services into classes which are generally based on the nature of the service provided and the type of clinician providing the service. The structure of the classification is first differentiated by the nature of the non-admitted service provided.
The major categories are:
- procedures
- medical consultation services
- diagnostic services
- allied health or clinical nurse specialist intervention services.
For example, a hospital outpatient clinic which performs endoscopies will be classified to a class in the procedures category. A clinic which performs computerised tomography scans will be classified to a class in the stand-alone diagnostic services category. A clinic run by a doctor who sees patients for consultations will be classified to a class in the medical consultation services category.
The next level of the classification is the type of clinician providing the service. This could be based on the speciality or profession of the clinician. For example, a clinic run by a cardiothoracic surgeon who sees patients for consultations before and after cardiac surgery is classified to the cardiothoracic class. A clinic run by an obstetrician who sees women for consultations before they give birth is classified to the obstetrics class. A clinic run by a physiotherapist who sees patients for consultations and treatments is classified to the physiotherapy class.
There are also a number of classes for specialist clinics which treat patients with specific conditions. For example, there are classes for specialist burns clinics, transplant clinics and cystic fibrosis clinics.
Classification rules exist to guide the decision making regarding which Tier 2 class a clinic should be classified to. The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) has developed a suite of three reference documents to assist the consistent allocation of non-admitted services to a Tier 2 class.
Rules for coding and reporting COVID-19 episodes of care
IHACPA has issued classification advice that specifies the rules for reporting of COVID-19 in Australian hospitals, including for non-admitted care. The advice can be found in the Rules for coding and reporting COVID-19 episodes of care.
For more information about COVID-19 classification refer to the How to classify COVID-19 webpage.