Medical Cost Finder Tool Project
Consumers Health Forum has been engaged by the Department of Health and Aged Care for an ongoing project improving the Medical Costs Finder Tool.
The Department of Health and Aged Care is currently redeveloping the Medical Costs Finder tool to better meet consumer needs. CHF will be leading consumer participation in the review, drawing on consumers' views on medical costs finding processes in general and the revised MCF tool in particular.
The Medical Costs Finder (MCF) tool was launched in December 2019 to provide information to consumers about out-of-pocket costs for non-GP medical specialist services, to support informed decisions about their health care and to present costs data by location. Information on the Medical Costs Finder uses aggregated, de-identified government data about the costs of treatments in the private health system. The website as it is currently presented provides a typical out-of-Pocket costs for specific in-hospital and out-of-hospital procedures in the private health system.
There is an opportunity for consumers to be involved in a Working Group that will review the in-development revision to the Medical Costs Finder webtool, share their own experiences or processes for finding medical costs, identify gaps in consumer education regarding medical costs and co-develop resources to correct those gaps.
Sitting fees of $83.60/hour will be offered to Working Group members for a total of eight hours per person, split into four 2-hour workshops to be held between August 2022 and November 2022. The workshops are generally expected to be held on Tuesday afternoons and you must be available to attend all four. The first one is tentatively proposed to be held on Tues 2 August 2022.
If you would like to be considered as a member of the Consumer Working Group, please complete this application form. Expressions of interest close at midnight AEST on Sun 24 July 2022.
All expressions of interest will be assessed by an independent panel based on merit. If you have any questions please contact CHF Research and Data Policy Officer, James Ansell at j.ansell@chf.org.au.
The information provided in your expression of interest will be kept confidential and will only be shared with the Consumer Working Group Selection Panel and the CHF secretariat team.