Estimates of cost per medical service

Estimates of cost per medical service
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This appendix presents the information on the average costs of medical services which is used in conjunction with the NHS 1995 to produce the estimates of per capita health expenditure. These estimates have been made using a variety of administrative and survey data sources by the AIHW. CAEPR has taken these estimates as given. CAEPR was provided with no information on the standard errors of these estimates or with enough information to allow the standard errors to be calculated.

Table C.1. Cost per day in hospital for admitted patients

	Male		Female
	Non-Indigenous	Indigenous	Non-Indigenous	Indigenous
	$	$	$	$
Male
0 to 4 years	743	732	724	708
5 to 9 years	892	791	900	786
10 to 14 years	861	783	831	757
15 to 19 years	764	719	710	577
20 to 24 years	627	560	683	567
25 to 29 years	624	580	675	591
30 to 34 years	631	576	683	584
35 to 39 years	693	611	702	633
40 to 44 years	714	693	695	620
45 to 49 years	692	484	688	665
50 to 54 years	733	565	701	616
55 to 59 years	755	658	699	613
60 to 64 years	720	567	707	594
65 to 69 years	733	588	685	473
70 to 74 years	690	558	661	544
75+ years	587	478	531	461
Total	678	621	640	607

Note: Acute patient costs for public and private hospitals are calculated using state DRG weights and are based on 1997–98 hospital data. Medical costs for private patients are not included. 1998–99 dollars. Expenditure is calculated using the Australian Refined (AR) system of diagnosis related groups (DRGs). Each AR-DRG represents a class of patients with similar clinical conditions requiring similar hospital services. Data were supplied to the AIHW by the state and territory health authorities, and by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for the hospitals it operated in NSW. Data were of two main types. The first, collated by AIHW as the National Public Hospital Establishments Database, included information about public hospitals, their resources, expenditure and revenue. The second type, collated as the National Hospital Morbidity Database, was patient-level data on the diagnoses and other characteristics of admitted patients in both public and private hospitals, and on the hospital care they received.

Table C.2. Out-of-hospital specialist services, cost per service, 1998–99

	Benefit paid ($)		Out of pocket expenditure ($)
	Males	Females	Males	Females
Indigenous
0–44	58	56	14	14
45+	51	51	11	11
Total	54	53	12	12
Non-Indigenous
00–04	53	53	12	12
05–14	53	53	12	12
15–24	53	53	12	12
25–34	53	53	12	12
35–44	53	53	12	12
45–54	53	53	12	12
55–64	53	53	12	12
65–74	53	53	12	12
75+	53	53	12	12
Total	53	53	12	12

Note: Estimated using a combination of Medicare data and data from the Beach survey of general practitioners.

Table C.3. Out-of-hospital GP services, cost per service, 1998–99

	Benefit paid ($)		Out of pocket expenditure ($)
	Males	Females	Males	Females
Indigenous
00–04	75	62	7	6
05–14	32	30	3	3
15–24	26	60	2	5
25–34	49	87	4	9
35–44	54	83	5	9
45–54	85	94	10	12
55–64	85	147	8	13
65–74	123	144	6	6
75+	170	134	6	4
Total	50	68	5	7
00–04	156	145	14	13
05–14	71	73	6	7
15–24	66	118	6	10
25–34	76	138	7	15
35–44	86	133	9	15
45–54	103	152	12	19
55–64	145	184	14	16
65–74	200	228	9	10
75+	216	314	7	9
Total	105	150	9	13

Note: Estimated using a combination of Medicare data and data from the Beach survey of general practitioners.

Table C.4. Prescription medications

	Benefit paid ($)		Out of pocket expenditure ($)
	Males	Females	Males	Females
Males
0–4	37.24	5.2	22.37	4.2
5–14	39.95	2.4	22.60	2.2
15–24	42.51	2.1	25.75	1.5
25–34	43.19	2.4	21.02	4.6
35–44	40.33	3.2	26.85	3.7
45–54	38.66	4.4	26.02	6.7
55–64	40.83	9.0	29.70	11.9
65–74	34.23	18.5	29.60	17.6
75+	21.48	27.1	27.87	10.1
Total	35.16	5.7	24.74	3.8
0–4	35.52	5.0	19.79	4.2
5–14	36.67	2.6	21.29	1.7
15–24	43.74	4.0	29.13	2.8
25–34	44.39	4.3	24.14	5.4
35–44	41.03	4.6	26.92	5.4
45–54	41.62	6.2	26.79	7.8
55–64	40.55	12.6	30.70	15.5
65–74	33.10	22.8	35.30	12.0
75+	26.58	27.9	25.99	15.9
Total	36.09	8.0	26.10	4.6

Note: Estimated using a combination of administrative data on prescription medications and data from the Beach survey of general practitioners.

It was not possible to disaggregate costs for all medical service types. The following estimates were only available on an Australian-wide basis:

Non-admitted patients in public non-psychiatric hospitals: For this medical service type there is only an Australia-wide estimate. The average cost per non-admitted patient is $95.64.
Over-the-counter medications: For this medical service type there is only an Australia-wide estimate. The average cost per over-the-counter medication is $11.46.
Other health professionals: For this medical service type there is only an Australia-wide estimate. The average cost per visit to another health professional is $61.24.

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