Cost and quality: The challenge for physiotherapists in a casemix funded environment

Inpatient health care in Australia is currently undergoing major change, moving from historically derived budgets to systems requiring much greater accountability to revenue providers. It is crucial for clinical staff, as well as administrators, to understand these changes as clinicians will be required to provide accurate and appropriate information regarding costs incurred and health benefits achieved to justify the services they provide. This article reviews three major initiatives in health care; casemix classification, outcomes evaluation and benchmarking, and analyses the role these processes play in achieving better and more efficient health care. The impact of these processes and the opportunities they provide for the physiotherapy profession are discussed.