Study To Look At Health Funding Mechanisms

For immediate release 13 August 2001

Study To Look At Health Funding Mechanisms

As the New Zealand health system begins its latest restructuring, Auckland academic Paul Rouse is to compare this country’s health funding mechanisms with those of the United Kingdom.

The significance of his study has been further highlighted by the just released news that the World Health Organisation ranks New Zealand 80th out of 191 countries in terms of health system efficiency.

Dr Rouse has just been awarded a travel grant by the Institute of Chartered Accountants to enable him to travel to the UK to undertake his comparative study

Dr Rouse is a senior lecturer in management accounting at the University of Auckland’s School of Business and Economics. His study will look specifically at the mechanisms that distribute funding to acute hospitals, with a special focus on the costing systems used by health providers.

“In the early 1990s New Zealand and the UK both embarked on an internal market approach to allocating healthcare funding,” Dr Rouse said.

“However, the mechanisms the two have adopted to cost and price healthcare have differed markedly.

“By examining those differences I hope to identify best practice systems.”

Dr Rouse says an understanding of the cost of healthcare provision at both provider and patient levels is crucial if the New Zealand health system is to manage costs and deliver effective services to the community.

Each year the Institute of Chartered Accountants offers grants for travel that will benefit the accounting profession in New Zealand or will support a tertiary student studying accounting, auditing, or closely related disciplines.

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Contacts:

Dr Paul Rouse Bev Edlin

Senior Lecturer in Management Accounting Divisional Director - Member Services

School of Business and Economics Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand

The University of Auckland Ph: (04) 474 7845 (DDI)

Ph: (09) 373 7599 ext. 7151 Ph: (025) 417 554 (mobile)

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