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Healthscope says it’s set to terminate its contracts with private health insurers Bupa and the Australian Health Services Alliance.
Healthscope runs private facilities nationally including clinics, rehabs and regional and capital city hospitals.
“Bupa and the AHSA’s refusal to sustainably fund hospitals has left Healthscope with no option but to issue the termination notices,” Healthscope just said in a press statement.
It comes after ongoing concerns about the funding and viability of private hospitals, with Healthscope saying the gap between health insurance payouts and its costs are too high.
“This is a sector-wide challenge, and the funding gap is now at such an acute stage that the economics are simply unsustainable for private hospitals,” Healthscope says.
Healthscope says it’ll axe its Bupa contract from 20 February and then ASHA from March 4. It says its decision to do this comes after attempts to negotiate with both insurers.
We’ve contacted both Bupa and Alliance for their side of things. We’ll bring you more on this story soon.
In the interim, you can watch more about the challenges facing private hospitals in this TV story by our colleague Rhiana Whitson.
Tenants in two capital cities are paying more than 30 per cent of their income, on average, towards their rent — for the first time since the SGS Economics Rental Affordability Index was first published a decade ago.
Rental affordability has deteriorated in greater Perth, Adelaide and Sydney, while Tasmania and the ACT were the only states and territories to see an improvement.
Across the country, there is nowhere affordable for single people receiving JobSeeker, part-time workers on a parenting payment, or pensioners to rent, the index has found.
This story from our reporter Rachel Clayton will also be on TV across the ABC network today.
Can we talk about Bitcoin? Or are we waiting till it hits the elusive $100k
– Tim
We certainly can talk Bitcoin!
Although this news story of the divisive cryptocurrency hitting a fresh high, seems like a story we literally just did? It keeps going up!
It is now at around $US98,000 and looks set to hit six figures. That’s as Trump’s pro-crypto stance pleases investors.
It may surprise you, but Coles is now at risk of being overtaken on pure store numbers by Aldi.
I did a deep dive on the German supermarket’s impact in Australia as part of my coverage of the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry.
The hearings continue today with Coles up again from 10am AEST.
The AUD has been so far not too badly impacted by the rising US dollar.
“The AUD/USD remains in a tight range around 0.65 despite the jump in the USD against the major European currencies,” CBA notes this morning.
“President Trump’s victory has pushed up equity markets that supports risk‑sensitive currencies such as AUD/USD. But if the equity markets become concerned about the global economic outlook, AUD/USD will fall further.”
Good morning and congratulations on making it to Friday.
I’ll be here with you this morning, bringing you news from Wall Street, where investors are getting into old school stocks like Goldman Sachs and Home Depot over tech shares.
The Australian market is expected to follow Wall Street’s fortunes, with futures up near 1% for the ASX 200.
Meanwhile, the USD is up too. CBA is putting this down to the Ukraine‑Russia war and higher US yields as investors there bet on higher interest rates in the long-term under Trump.
Any stories you’d like looked at today?
