Activity-Based Funding in Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services: Clinical Staff Perspectives and Practice...

Many drug health services receive activity-based funding (ABF), which is reliant on accurate data collection to ensure appropriate reimbursement and quality care. This article reports results of a qualitative study commissioned by NSW Health about drug health services clinical staff's experiences in meeting ABF data entry requirements.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with drug health services clinical staff (n = 10) to investigate their experiences in meeting ABF data entry requirements.

Participants identified some benefits of an ABF model, but they described many technical and conceptual barriers to complying with ABF data reporting requirements. These included making frequent data entry errors, activity categories not aligning with their interpretation of the work they did, and not always knowing what activities attracted funding.

Practical measures to improve compliance include training and quality assurance opportunities, enhanced managerial and administrative support, database enhancements and increased collaboration between clinicians and technicians. Implementing these measures could result in more accurate funding for services and improve patient care.