APHA Policy Framework

APHA’s core purpose is to ensure the ongoing development of the Private Hospital Industry.

In fulfilling its core purpose, APHA strives to achieve the following aims and objectives.

The APHA’s aims are:

• To ensure that Australians are empowered with personal choice and rapid access to affordable hospital care of the highest quality.
• To champion the cause of private hospitals in delivering the very best in hospital care to patients.
• To promote and protect the interests of private hospitals, their owners and operators, and to proactively interact with members, to ensure private health care continues to be dynamic in meeting the ever-changing needs of the Australian community.
• To strive in achieving acceptance by governments of a comprehensive role for private hospitals in their desire to provide a full range of health care services and their commitment to adequate self-regulation and review – thus ensuring the highest standards in quality care.
• To adopt all measures necessary to emphasise the rightful place of private hospitals in Australia’s unique balanced health care system.

To achieve these aims, the APHA will:

• Initiate, foster and maintain a consultative, cooperative and communicative approach to dealing with governments, bureaucracies, other health and health-related organisations, media, community groups and the public.
• Act as the principal coordinating and peak lobbying body for private hospitals and day surgery facilities.
• Encourage and facilitate united positions among member and non-member private hospitals, as well as all other relevant bodies, to achieve consensus in the policies and issues advanced.
• Promote and recognise the highest professional and ethical standards, health service delivery achievements and innovative medical and non-medical treatments for the betterment of patient and community wellbeing.
• Stimulate greater awareness of private hospital excellence through improved communication between hospitals and the Australian community.

APHA aims to influence the legislative and regulatory environment in a positive way, in the interests of our members, the health sector, and, more broadly, to make a contribution to Australia’s economic and social well being.

One of the important ways in which we do is this through active engagement with policy makers, legislators and regulators, exchanging information and knowledge. This engagement is conducted via meetings and discussion, proactive and reactive submissions on policy and legislation, and appearances before Parliamentary and Government Committees that are considering relevant issues.

APHA always conducts this activity in a way that is consistent with our aims and objectives. We seek to bring rigorous, thoughtful and consistent views into the public policy arena. Whilst always aware of and responsive to the immediate concerns of our members, we also understand that as a peak body operating in an important sector of the economy, we have a responsibility to put forward proposals that are in the national interest as well as our own interest.

Private hospitals are a vital partner, with public hospitals, in Australia’s health system.

Australia’s health system is funded by governments, private hospital owners and operators, and private health insurance payments. Our balanced system of public and private care provides access to health services which are delivered predominately by private practitioners in private settings. Hospital care and treatment is delivered both in the public and private sectors. People who choose to insure their health care take pressure off the public hospital system, and off the taxpayer. The government has assisted those people with the cost of their private health insurance through providing a rebate on the cost of private health insurance.

APHA‘s Policy Framework

APHA supports and advocates these over-arching principles:

• The maintenance of balance and choice in Australian health care through both publicly funded services and support for private health insurance;

• The right of patients, their families and carers to access safe, high quality health care in all settings in which that care is provided, and the integration of the principles and practices of quality and safety into private and public hospital development, management and service delivery;

• The provision of accurate, accessible and timely information to consumers by insurers, health care providers and health care facilities so that they can understand the details of their health cover and their expenses, including any exclusions and out of pocket costs;

• The maintenance of the current prohibition on health insurance products with exclusions for palliative, psychiatric and rehabilitation care, as consumers cannot readily assess their risk in these areas;

• A truly national approach to the collection of data, under which one body is tasked to develop a single data collection that is consistent across both public and private sectors and enables this data to inform policy development and planning by Governments and private services providers and operators;

A national approach to health workforce issues to ensure an adequate supply of health care professionals across all sectors, and to foster post graduate training and education of Australia’s health workforce.