Modelling financial scenarios for Plenty Valley Community Health’s general practice clinic
Context: Plenty Valley Community Health provides primary healthcare, social and psychological support services to people of all ages, focusing on the growing outer northern metropolitan area of Melbourne. PVCH promotes healthy lifestyles and healthy communities through accessible and integrated health services, while valuing community input.
Challenge: As part of its commitment to providing integrated healthcare services, PVCH operates a large general practice clinic in Mill Park. The clinic was developed though the Australian Government’s GP Super Clinic Program, in 2011-12.
Larter was engaged by PVCH to undertake economic modelling for the clinic and provide a paper to the Board which included options for the clinic moving into the future.
Supporting Evidence-Based Financial Decision-Making
Healthcare organisations rely on accurate financial insights to make informed decisions about resource allocation, service delivery, and future investment. Larter combines financial analysis with stakeholder engagement to provide practical recommendations that support sustainable healthcare services and improved organisational performance.
Why Financial Analysis Matters for General Practice
Financial analysis helps general practices understand revenue trends, operational costs, and long-term sustainability. By evaluating financial performance alongside service delivery, healthcare organisations can identify opportunities to improve efficiency, support strategic planning, and strengthen primary care services.
Response: Larter developed a robust general practice economic modelling spreadsheet enabling Larter and PVCH staff to input different variables and ascertain the impact of various scenarios on the clinic. The modelling included:
- Income, expenditure and net profit/loss summary
- Adjustable variables including client throughput, operating hours, MBS billing mix (e.g. standard consultations, chronic illness care plans, mental health care plans, health assessments etc.), staff remuneration rates and EFT (including GPs, allied health, nursing and practice staff), as well as other costs.
Outcome: Following Larter’s presentation on the economic model scenarios, the Board had greater clarity about the current state of the GP Clinic and the future options and was able to confidently make decisions around the clinic.
Building Sustainable Primary Care Services
Understanding financial performance is an important part of strengthening primary healthcare services. Through evidence-based analysis and healthcare program evaluation, Larter helps healthcare organisations identify improvement opportunities, optimise service delivery, and support sustainable outcomes for communities and funding bodies.
Contact us to learn more about our expertise in economic modelling and using MBS in the primary health sector.
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I can only recommend the Larter team for their knowledge of our sector and their expertise around the complex funding models and policies that impact on our services.
Their professionalism and capacity to bring in knowledge and strategies from a wide area really enhanced the work they did and gave us more options than we had expected.
They were quick, consultative, knowledgeable and delivered results to my Board that appreciated the policy and funding environment that we work within.