Submission
The National Rural Health Alliance made a submission to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) to make comment on the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2026-2027. The submission emphasises the issues that should be considered for block funding and other costings for rural hospitals. This includes higher transportation costs, lower economies of scale, higher costs for locums, higher costs for telecommunications infrastructure, higher fuel, energy, materials, consumables, insurance as well as proportionally higher compliance and accreditation costs.