TechnologyOne solution distributes the $300 billion running the Australian public hospital system

The National Health Funding Body (NHFB) has hit the $300 billion milestone in monies distributed to pay every nurse and doctor in the Australian public hospital system since it switched to Australian-made TechnologyOne.

In the five years of its successful partnership with the local software vendor, the NHFB has also slashed costs and driven enormous increases in productivity, funding the medical care of tens of millions of Aussies.

In 2019, the NHFB backed itself and Australian ingenuity and moved the technology it used to distribute public hospital funding from a shared service run by Services Australia’s 25,000 staff to its in-house team of just 30 FTEs, supported by TechnologyOne.

Shannon White, National Health Funding Body CEO, said: “It was just such a compelling business case. And having a Canberra office about three streets away from where we were definitely has helped, as has having a team in Brisbane for a quick phone call to tap into the expertise and knowledge in that office to troubleshoot any issues."

Australia's healthcare system relies on precise and efficient financial coordination. The NHFB, an independent statutory authority, plays a pivotal role in managing $68 billion in state and federal funds every year across 137 local hospital networks and more than 700 public hospitals. This substantial funding supports over 41 million services provided to the Australian public each year. Since going live with TechnologyOne, the NHFB has gained huge efficiencies, slashing weeks off their key processes and have never missed a payment despite the significant values involved.

The NHFB’s previous software, a makeshift solution from 2012, was fraught with security risks and operational challenges. The NHFB was in urgent need of a solution. One option was an $8 million enterprise software solution from SAP, with a build time of two years that would cost another $1 million a year to run. Brisbane-based Software-as-a-Service provider TechnologyOne also bid for the contract, offering a cost-effective at a quarter of the price compared to what could be delivered under Services Australia’s shared services model. For the NHFB, it was a no-brainer, and the fact it was being conducted by a home-grown company a pleasant surprise.

The solution took just six months to build and an additional three months to enable co-design with states and territories’ health departments, which helped reduce implementation friction and generate goodwill. The project was delivered on time, coming online just as COVID-19 struck the country, placing enormous pressure on the health system.

This timely deployment proved crucial with NHFB using the system to administer the National Partnership on COVID-19 Response, seeing an extra $14.3 billion paid to states and territories to support them financially for PCR testing, state-run vaccinations, emergency stockpiling of personal protective equipment, securing private hospital beds, staff and intensive-care unit beds for any surge capacity, and cleaning across hospitals, schools and public transport.

“Had we still been on the old payment system, there’s no way we could have done that work,” White said.

The enhanced transparency and efficiency of the new system have revolutionised reporting. Previously, a month’s report would take up to five months to publish; now, reports are produced in less than three weeks, consistently for the past 30 months. This has allowed the NHFB to shift focus from manual tasks to strategic analysis and financial projections.

The NHFB’s payment system offers the security and functionality it wanted; better reporting tools, collaboration, fewer manual processes and more digital workflow – important for an agency dealing with billions of dollars in transactions – as well as better integration with other Federal government bodies.

TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung said: “This is a brilliant story of successful Australian-made technology supporting the government sector, helping with significant cost reductions and helping smart public servants deliver a better service.”

“As a local provider competing against multi-national vendors from around the world, we have a proud history of building an advanced business information service system and take great pride in delivering the best value for money for our customers, ensuring taxpayers’ money is retained locally.”

Headquartered in Brisbane and with 400 Australia-based developers, TechnologyOne’s solutions are trusted by more than 230 Federal and State Government agencies and departments across Australia and New Zealand, including the Tasmanian and Western Australian Governments. The Australian-made software developer integrates and maintains the latest in innovative security and privacy technologies and exceed the highest Australian standards in security.