Hospital managers from throughout the country are not prepared to sign contracts with the ACC at below cost rates, Southern District Health Board chief operating officer (Otago) Vivian Blake says.
She told the board's hospitals' advisory committee that at the end of May, three Southern contracts remained unsigned.
The contract prices offered varied from no increase to 1.3% when "our increase in costs are much greater than that".
The three contracts were for non-acute rehabilitation, active rehabilitation and community nursing.
Mrs Blake said all of her counterparts across the country were resolutely refusing to sign any new ACC contracts until the matter was resolved.
The board had told ACC it wanted to discuss the issue, she said.
