Overview

The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) engaged Survey Matters to design and deliver a national research program examining specialist anaesthesia fees and patient out-of-pocket costs within the private health system.

The research was commissioned against a backdrop of increased media and public commentary suggesting anaesthetists’ fees were a key driver of rising healthcare costs. The ASA sought independent, credible evidence to assess these claims and to provide policymakers and stakeholders with a clearer understanding of how anaesthesia fees are set, how rebates operate, and where cost pressures sit within the system.

The study was designed to support informed policy discussion, founded in practitioner experience rather than opinion or anecdote, and to strengthen the ASA’s engagement with government on healthcare transparency and affordability.

What Survey Matters delivered

Survey Matters worked closely with the ASA to design, field and analyse a large-scale national survey of anaesthetists practising in private or mixed public-private settings.

More than 1,100 anaesthetists participated, representing approximately one quarter of the private practice anaesthesia workforce across all States and Territories. This provided a robust national dataset, enabling reliable aggregate reporting and insight while maintaining practitioner confidentiality.

The survey explored how anaesthesia fees are set, participation in private health insurer no gap and known gap arrangements, approaches to informed financial consent, and how clinicians manage patient out-of-pocket costs across planned, unplanned and emergency care. Quantitative results were supported by qualitative feedback, adding context to the trade-offs clinicians manage in everyday practice.

Survey Matters delivered the full research program end to end, including research design, questionnaire development, data collection, analysis and reporting. Outputs included a comprehensive technical report for ASA leadership, a publicly released summary report, and tailored analysis to support stakeholder briefings and government submissions.

What the research clarified

The research enabled the ASA to move discussion beyond simplified narratives about specialist fees by examining how anaesthetists engage with patients with regards to consent and fees in both planned and unplanned admissions in the private healthcare system. Rather than treating fees in isolation, the study brought together clinical requirements, insurer arrangements and patient affordability considerations to provide a clearer explanation of where patient out‑of‑pocket costs arise within the private health system.

Importantly, the research distinguished between clinician decision‑making and structural system settings.

It demonstrated how anaesthetists routinely absorb cost pressure through insurer participation, capped billing and fee reduction, while highlighting rebate indexation and insurer design as persistent, system‑level drivers of patient costs. By linking fee practices with informed financial consent and the realities of high quality and safe care delivery, the research supported more policy‑focused discussion centred on system settings rather than individual fee regulation.

Launch and policy impact

The research provided the ASA with a strong, evidence-based platform to engage with policymakers and stakeholders during a period of heightened focus on healthcare transparency and costs.

Findings from the research were cited directly in a formal submission to the Commonwealth Government as part of its inquiry into private health consumer transparency and reform. The evidence also informed briefings with senior government stakeholders and supported the ASA’s public contribution both prior to and following the report’s release.

As a direct outcome of the research, the ASA is providing the missing piece of the puzzle, clinician experience of the patient interaction, to the broader discussions examining healthcare systems, funding, transparency and costs.

The study continues to position and affirm the ASA as a credible, evidence-led contributor to policy discussion, shifting attention from individual fee narratives to the underlying system settings affecting affordability and access.

Outcome

The Specialist Fees and Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs research has provided the ASA with authoritative, independent evidence to inform public and policy debate on anaesthesia fees.

Drawing directly on practitioner data, the research supports more informed engagement on transparency and highlights the structural role of rebate adequacy and indexation in shaping patient out-of-pocket costs. The project demonstrates the value of research in supporting effective advocacy and constructive policy engagement on complex health system issues.