Who should attend: Costing practitioners across jurisdictions and health care professionals, activity based funding, costing and finance and mental health care professionals, and service managers from public hospitals and health departments.

Hear from IHACPA and representatives from QLD and SA as they share insights on mental health data collection, classification, costing and pricing. This includes data insights from recent NHCDC submissions and variation in reporting across jurisdictions. Representatives from QLD and SA will also present their journeys of costing mental health services.

Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences, expectations and challenges when costing admitted and community mental health activity. The workshop will provide opportunity for Q&A with the audience and conclude with identifying the next steps for improving reporting and costing admitted and community mental health services.

Who should attend: This workshop is suitable for individuals with limited experience in activity based funding (ABF). It is designed for participants who are interested in gaining an understanding ABF and related concepts, along with their application in health settings.

This workshop will provide an introduction to ABF, its objectives and the associated systems including policy, data collection, classifications, costing and pricing. It will provide an overall perspective of IHAPCA’s ABF framework, with a focus on examples from the public hospital context and will include some discussion on how related concepts apply to residential aged care settings.

Who should attend: Activity based funding, costing and finance, and mental health care professionals and service managers from public hospitals and health departments.

In 2016, IHACPA released a national casemix classification for mental health care, known as the Australian Mental Health Care Classification (AMHCC). The AMHCC is a clinically meaningful classification used for ABF purposes which aims to improve the prediction of cost and resource use for mental health care services. The AMHCC provides opportunity for innovation in funding of community mental health care services that is consumer-focused and recognises the complexity and resource usage of services. Since 2022-23 admitted mental health has been priced using the AMHCC in the national pricing model.

For the community setting, the AMHCC seeks to replace current block funding to generate greater transparency in the funding of these services and aligned to the principles of ABF. Additionally, IHACPA has undertaken a program of transition work in consultation with Australian states and territories to identify and mitigate risks associated with moving to ABF from block funding including analysis of activity and cost data and gap analysis between the two funding mechanisms.

This workshop will cover the background, objectives and relevant concepts for the implementation of ABF for community mental health care services. We will outline the important factors to be considered in supporting high quality data reporting and utilising ABF information for continuous improvement in service delivery and management. This includes the delivery of value-based, consumer-focused and coordinated care.

Who should attend: Aged care sector, business and finance teams, upper management and researchers interested in aged care costing, pricing or funding.

Since 2023, IHACPA has provided residential aged care pricing advice to the Australian Government. In 2025, we also recently provided our first pricing advice on the Support at Home service list. This workshop will outline the policy context we are operating in and the process for developing our pricing advice to government. Key elements will include the consultation process, pricing framework development, aged care cost collections and pricing methodology. Presenters will also discuss areas for future consideration.

Who should attend: Healthcare executives, clinical and finance leaders and costing teams; researchers and advisory firms; consumer and community advocates and people with lived experience.

The impacts of climate change are becoming clearer and more significant in Australia, as worldwide. Australia now has a National Health and Climate Strategy to guide healthcare systems in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and in adapting to become more resilient to the effects of climate change. This workshop will explore how and where pricing and costing can contribute to meeting climate goals, and where best to begin work in this area.

Who should attend: This workshop is designed for private hospital executives, health insurers, policymakers, funders, clinicians, and health economists — anyone with a stake in the future of Australia’s private health system.

Australia’s private hospitals are essential to the health system, delivering two-thirds of elective surgeries and playing a vital role in mental health and maternity care. But behind this high-quality care lies a funding system that is stuck in the past. Current pricing arrangements are negotiated behind closed doors between insurers and hospitals, with little transparency and no clear link to the actual cost of care. The result? Inefficiency, rising costs, stifled innovation, and increasing financial pressure on providers.

In the face of workforce shortages, cost pressures, and an ageing population, the time for reform is now. This workshop puts forward a bold but practical solution: introducing a National Private Price, a transparent, evidence-based benchmark for funding private hospital care, inspired by the successful National Efficient Price in public hospitals. By laying the groundwork for activity-based funding in the private sector, this reform could transform how care is funded and delivered, especially in under-served regional and rural areas.

This workshop will unpack the policy, politics, and practical implications of this reform, drawing on the experience of Catholic Health Australia’s 63 private hospitals. We will explore how a National Private Price can enable smarter purchasing, foster fairer insurer-provider relationships, and support a more sustainable, innovative, and patient-centred private health system.

Who should attend: Aged care sector, CEO, COO, CFO, Managers (General, Finance, Property Development, Sales, Customer Relations, Operations), Business Analysts.

IHACPA is responsible for the assessment and approval of Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) applications submitted by residential aged care providers. From 1 January 2025, aged care providers must apply to IHACPA for RAD amounts above $750,000. From 1 November 2025, IHACPA’s assessment process will be guided by the Aged Care Rules 2025. In this workshop, registered aged care providers can hear more about these changes, and will be provided with information and guidance about the RAD application process.

This workshop will advise providers:

• how to submit an effective RAD application or business case
• how our assessment methodology works and what we are guided by in the legislation when considering a price
• how we work to provide information and support to providers about the application process and associated requirements.