Project Plan for the Prostheses List Reform Agenda

The Prostheses List (PL) was introduced in 1985 to support delivery of surgical services in the private sector. Since this time, the PL has been the subject of numerous reviews and modifications aimed at constraining the cost of prothesis for private health insurers. In the 2021‒22 Federal Budget, the Government committed $22 million over four years to improve the PL and its arrangements. The Department of Health (the Department) has engaged Healthcare Management Advisors (HMA) to:

‘develop a project plan to support the implementation of the Prostheses List reforms which aim to better relate the Prostheses List Benefit amounts to market values by aligning private health benefits and public hospital prices.’

Key tasks included:

• A workshop with internal Department stakeholders to scope the tasks required to undertake the reform agenda and understand the likely timing of each.
• Development of a program logic that clearly articulated the reform agenda, resources available, activities required for each initiative and the intended outcomes of each.
• Design of a detailed project plan that outlined the tasks for each of the reform initiatives and the associated:
  • Sub-tasks
  • Parties responsible
  • Stakeholders requiring consultation
  • Dependencies and linkages
  • Timing, and
  • Risks
• Establishment of a task level project plan and Gantt chant in Microsoft Project to support the detailed plan.

This project commenced in July 2021 and was completed in August 2021.