National Efficient Price Determination 2026–27
Date published: 11 March 2026
The national efficient price (NEP) sets the price for in-scope public hospital services funded on an activity basis.
The NEP is based on an extensive program of research, consultation and analysis of the cost and patterns of health service delivery over time.
Key updates for 2026–27
NEP26 is set at $7,418 per national weighted activity unit.
We regularly undertake reviews and updates of existing classifications to ensure they remain clinically relevant and up to date. For NEP26:
- admitted acute care is priced using the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups Version 12.0. This better reflects clinical practice and resource use by including new groupings for maternal care, a new group for organ donation after death and new principles for consistent grouping of intervention-based episodes of care.
- non-admitted services are priced using the Tier 2 Non-Admitted Services Classification Version 10.0, which introduces new classes for hospital-based, non-admitted voluntary assisted dying services.
Temporary measures to account for the impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on public hospitals have been removed, as current activity and cost data already reflect the pandemic’s impact. Within the safety and quality stream, COVID-19 will be considered as a risk factor for categories where it is statistically relevant.
An updated methodology that more accurately removes Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme benefits from data collections has been implemented for NEP26, contributing to improved alignment of prices to reported cost data.