Primary Health Care

Laboratory Subsidy

The Primary Health Care Strategy provides for the payment of additional annual funding to DHBs to contribute toward the additional cost of laboratory services that is expected to arise due to increased demand from lowering the cost of access to GPs. This additional funding applies only to enrolees in Access PHOs.

The 2004/05 Budget was calculated based on 9% of the actual 2001/02 Claim Value for all of New Zealand, and averaged across the projected number of enrolees in Access PHOs to produce an average figure of $3.44 per enrolee. The 2004/05 actual cost excludes any 2001/02 claims that were individually less than $2,500 as for practical purposes, DHB Funding and Performance Directorate have excluded small value transactions below this figure as the administrative cost of compensating DHBs for costs below this amount is not considered cost/benefit efficient. For the forecast models, laboratory services costs are calculated based on the average top up cost per enrolee used in the 2004/05 budget model ($3.44 per enrolee).

The methodology for the calculation of laboratory costs in the out years has been altered to that shown in the models after close off of the final forecasts. The impact of the change is that the forecast for laboratory cost is overstated by $292,000 by 2008/09. The amount not material in relation to the total capitation cost and so have not been adjusted in the forecast. The adjustment will be included in the next forecast update.

Page last updated: January 2007