Elderly people with chronic illnesses are now funded by district health boards, rather than the Ministry of Health, in a change this month that carries a "downstream" financial risk to boards, Southern District Health Board finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones told a health committee recently.
Explaining the change to the combined disability support and public health and community advisory committees on Wednesday, he said Southern would receive $910,000 to manage elderly chronic conditions this year. While that was more than enough for this year, the change presented a possible future financial risk, he said, responding to a question from chairman Dr Malcolm Macpherson.
From 2013 a population-based funding formula would be used to determine funding.
