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The Hon Lindsay Tanner MP Cabinet Minister for Finance and Deregulation

Joint Media Release


The Hon Lindsay Tanner MP
Minister for Finance and Deregulation 		The Hon Nicola Roxon MP
Minister for Health and Ageing

46/2008
18 December 2008

Health Technology Assessment Processes

Procedures for approving the use of new health technology in Australia will be examined to make it easier for new devices and services to be adopted, while maintaining patient safety.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, today announced today that a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Review would be undertaken as a joint exercise between their portfolios.

Minister Tanner and Minister Roxon announced that “The HTA Review will be one of the first Better Regulation Ministerial Partnerships to be undertaken by the Australian Government, as part of its commitment to deregulation, to reduce costs to business and consumers, and contributes to the Government’s productivity agenda.”

The HTA Review will consider ways of streamlining, increasing timeliness and better co-ordinating arrangements for approving new health technology, to support innovation without compromising consumer safety. It will also assess ways to ensure that only medical services and devices which are clinically proven and provide value for money attract government funding.

It will also incorporate the Government’s response to the 2006 Banks Review “Rethinking Regulation” and to recent Productivity Commission Regulatory Burden reports which recommended action to reduce fragmentation, duplication and unnecessary complexity in the regulation of medical devices and technologies.

The Department of Health and Ageing will conduct the review, in close consultation with the Department of Finance and Deregulation. The review will consider processes for:

  1. regulation of therapeutic goods before they are released for sale, currently undertaken by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA);
  2. approval of Medical Benefits Schedule funding, currently advised by the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC); and
  3. listing of prostheses and devices for private health insurance coverage, currently advised by the Prostheses and Devices Committee (PDC).

The HTA Review will take public submissions and will also consult stakeholders through an independent Stakeholder Reference Group.

“The HTA Review is an important step towards an integrated model for evidence based assessment of health interventions. It will identify both short term improvements in assessment processes and possible longer term options for strategic reform,” Ms Roxon said.

The HTA Review is expected to report in late 2009. Further information about the HTA Review and the public submissions process will be available in mid January 2009 at the following website address: www.health.gov.au/htareview.

-ends-

Media Contacts:
Website:

Minister Tanner's Office - Nardia Dazkiw 0418 144 690
Minister Roxon's Office - Mark Ward 02 6277 7220

www.financeminister.gov.au

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