Tell us about the money...

The funding of General Practice services is quite dense and can be difficult to follow, even if you are working in the business. 

You see the price you pay over the counter, but did you know that in our practice that is less than a quarter of the true cost of your consultation?

Here is a little potted summary of the income sources for Hei Hei Health Centre:

In order of scale, we get our money from:

• Capitated Funding - a fixed lump sum paid to us for every enrolled patient, the same whether you come once a week or once a year.
• The fees you pay for your care.
• Fees paid to us by ACC as part payment for services we provide to you only when we see you (or provide information to ACC)
  
• Fees paid to us for services from the District Health Board (immunisations, screening and health promotion activites)
• Fees paid to us for services from Pegasus Health on behalf of the DHB (Smoking cessation, Efforts to keep patients out of hospital)
• Performance related pay - a very small payment for meeting targets, the majority of which is paid to Pegasus Health and used to fund education activities for doctors and nurses.

We manage to keep our fees so low by keeping our costs low but even so, it costs well over $1700 per working day to keep our centre running.

Every year, over 90% of our income is used to run the practice or support our community.

Just to give you an idea, in 2014, we have spent over $8000 on new computers, $10000 to equip a treatment suite for surgical procedures and $8000 for the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioner's Cornerstone accreditation audit.

We also paid over $1850 to sponsor local schools and sports clubs.

(Figures correct as at 01/07/2014)

Credits:

Money image:  Abaconda Management Group