The ACT government has denied missing out on any federal health funding after a damning report from an independent auditor suggested errors in patient data collection had cost ACT Health up to $3 million.
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The audit of the department's data integrity, tabled by ACT Auditor-General Maxine Cooper on Friday, found errors in "non-admitted patient data" reported to the federal government had resulted in "around $2 million to $3 million" being under-claimed over the past six months.
In 2012 the government faced allegations of "data doctoring" in territory health services after it was revealed patient records had been manipulated to improve reporting outcomes.
Dr Cooper said the report found ACT Health had gone to "considerable effort" over the past two years to improve governance, data management, training and user access, resulting in improved data integrity, but she said there was "more work to be done" describing the non-admitted patient data as "inadequate"
"There are insufficient controls to detect missing data, duplication of data and data not recorded in the correct period, or to provide an appropriate level of data integrity," she said.
"The Health Directorate needs to continue to address the root causes and impacts of errors in non-admitted patient data, and develop and implement policies and procedures for improvement, as a high priority."
Opposition leader Jeremy Hanson seized on the audit's findings as proof the government was "not up to running" the health system after 2012's "data doctoring scandal".
"It's also concerning that ACT Health believes potential losses of $2 to $3 million are minor," he said.
But Health Minister Simon Corbell said the department had not missed out on any commonwealth funds as the data errors would be rectified in its final submission in September.
"Before this year, we were paid a set amount based on population and indexation rates – not on the activity in our public hospital services," he said.
He said the data errors were not related to patient safety or information about general activity and performance reported to the public.
"Issues such as elective surgery and emergency department waiting times, presentations to emergency department or total inpatient activity at our hospitals are not in question," he said.
"The issues relate to the data we collect to provide to national bodies for funding purposes."
Mr Corbell blamed the underreporting on the identification of outpatient and community health services.
Prior to the introduction of activity-based funding, Mr Corbell said ACT Health captured about 95 per cent of all activity for Commonwealth funding purposes.
"The missing 5 per cent was related to non-admitted patient records without enough information for Commonwealth funding purposes," he said.
"We have taken positive action to address this by raising that from 95 per cent to 99 per cent and will obtain the last one percent before our final submission for the year is due."
Dr Cooper made 18 recommendations to the department following the report, 10 were a "high priority".
Mr Corbell said ACT Health had already recognised the issues and put in place a number of "major initiatives" to address them including the adoption of a new "data credentialing framework".
"We have also worked to establish new information management systems that will address all of the residual audit report concerns," he said.
"This work has been underway for some time and will be fully in place during the remainder of 2015."
