Independent Financial Review
The National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) is the primary data collection used by IHACPA to calculate the national efficient price for funding public hospital services.
To ensure the NHCDC is robust and fit for purpose, we commission an Independent Financial Review (IFR). The IFR assesses whether participating hospitals have applied the Australian Hospital Patient Costing Standards.
The IFR examines the accuracy and completeness of hospital financial reconciliations and confirms that all relevant in-scope costs and patient activity have been included in NHCDC submissions.
The IFR has been reinstated for the NHCDC 2023–24. While the review is intended to be conducted annually, it was not undertaken in full between 2019–20 and 2022–23 due to operational pressures on jurisdictions and hospitals during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In place of a full IFR, IHACPA published review reports for 2021–22 and 2022–23, along with financial reconciliations. An IFR was also not conducted for 2018–19 due to the impacts of the pandemic on states, territories and health services.