The Pandemic has forced governments to rethink their systems of healthcare delivery and digital has been one way to go to ensure maximum coverage with minimum physical interaction. For a developed economy like Australia, financing research and development of digital health technology and service delivery systems has become a primary focus area. Even though funding is still a matter of concern to reach their full potential in digital healthcare, the Australian government funds 42 per cent of all health services including 78 per cent of research, especially the Department of Health, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) which is responsible for the National Digital Health Strategy.
Local medical care such as operation of public hospitals, emergency departments and ambulance services is funded by state and territory governments that fund 27 per cent of all health services.
Health financing in the sector has delivered innovations across both infrastructure and capabilities with the key publicly funded innovation being the launch of MyHealth, an online platform that aggregates an individual’s key health information and provides interoperability between clinical information systems across the health sector. It is managed by ADHA.
The Covid-19 pandemic, the 2019-2020 bushfires, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and the Productivity Commission’s report into Mental Health have all accelerated appetite for investment in digital health technologies. They have also resulted in heightened coordination between public and private sector participants.
The introduction of whole-of-population access to telehealth under Medicare as well as electronic prescriptions and home delivery of medicines was a major social health insurance reform that came into effect last year.
In November 2020, the South Australia government allocated $197 million AUD to complete rollout of electronic medical records (EMR) systems and patient administration systems (PAS) in its metropolitan local health networks.
‘…the key challenge in the Australian digital health industry remains funding and access to capital to drive commercialization of innovations. This has been particularly relevant in respect of foreign investment given recent temporary restrictions implemented in the Australian foreign investment regime in response to the Covid-19 pandemic…’
To know more about Australia’s Digital health investments, read the original piece here.
Image Credits: NCI/Unsplash
Have anything to say about Covid-19 and Health Financing in Australia? Please let us know in the comments section below.
