This Month
Private hospitals warn of more closures after Labor refuses bailout
Health Minister Mark Butler has told struggling private hospital operators to sort out their own problems and resolve differences with insurers.
- Michael Smith
September
Private health giant Healthscope hopes for rent relief at 38 hospitals
But Health Minister Mark Butler has ruled out a taxpayer bailout for major private hospital operators, insisting they deal with soaring costs themselves.
- Tom McIlroy and Gus McCubbing
August
NIB says plan to fix hospital pricing ‘crazy’ as funding tensions grow
Insurers and hospitals are split on how to fix their acrimonious pricing negotiations as government reviews private health.
- Michael Smith
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why we’ll all end up taking Ozempic
Retiring NIB chief Mark Fitzgibbon on the two biggest issues facing the private health sector: the brawl between hospitals and insurers, and the future of care.
- James Thomson
Bain Capital a ‘motivated’ buyer of Permira-owned I-MED
A “limited” amount of new information has been shared with a handful of bidders in the past week to help familiarise them with the business.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Industry Engagement
- Higher Education Awards
La Trobe’s pioneering model to transform healthcare
The winner of the industry engagement award used COVID and a pinch of serendipity to create a world-leading virtual medical emergency model in Melbourne.
- Sylvia Ramsey
- Analysis
- Higher Education Awards
Winning strategy: A virtual lifeline for emergency departments
Comment provided by the winner of the Industry Engagement award, La Trobe University.
- James Boyd
Call for medical supply overhaul after IV fluid shortage shock
Health ministers met on Friday to discuss a critical shortage of IV fluid bags which is raising questions about Australia’s ability to source medical supplies.
- Michael Smith
Private hospital woes are ‘short term’, says healthcare property fund
Analysts say the HealthCo Healthcare & Wellness REIT could be one of the few listed property trusts to forecast earnings growth this reporting season.
- Larry Schlesinger
Ramsay tips lower earnings, hospital capex weak
Ramsay Health Care says full-year earnings will be weaker than expected as it flags writedowns on its European operations.
- Michael Smith
- Exclusive
- Healthcare
Hospitals seek right to boycott big insurers from funding talks
Catholic-operated private hospitals want a major shake-up of the way they negotiate funding deals with health insurers, in an escalation of tensions between the two sides.
- Michael Smith
July
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why Australia’s No.1 hospitals business poached a supermarkets boss
Ramsay Health Care chairman David Thodey is trading in deep industry knowledge and expertise for a consultant’s mindset. Will it work?
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
How to end the $22b private health war
Many things have changed in the 22 years that Mark Fitzgibbon has spent at the helm of NIB. The tension between private health insurers and private hospitals isn’t one of them.
- Updated
- James Thomson
Why can’t we die at home any more?
Many people who want to die at home are sent into overburdened hospitals for high-intensity care without clear benefits.
- Jill Margo
Deutsche Bank backs $210m Bendigo Hospital public-private refinance
Street Talk understands the German bank has come in as the project’s long-term lender, refinancing an existing bank syndicate.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
June
- Opinion
- Opinion
The bottom line is private hospitals are evolving, not collapsing
The government’s “financial health check” review should kick-start a conversation about innovation and the fate of some old, inefficient facilities.
- Matthew Koce
Help us or hospital system could fail: private operator
One of Australia’s largest Catholic hospital operators says a review of the viability of the private sector must secure a viable business model.
- Tom McIlroy
- Exclusive
- Healthcare
Private hospitals open books for urgent ‘health check’
Health Minister Mark Butler has launched an urgent review into the $22 billion private hospital system.
- Tom McIlroy
May
Healthscope is a fiasco for private debt funds – and their unitholders
In these situations, unitholders typically find out after the fact just how stressed the positions are.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
April
Healthscope in $919m writedown as hospital costs jump
One of Australia’s biggest private hospital operators plunged into the red as wage and medical supplies costs climbed, and it booked a big impairment.
- Simon Evans