Funding denied for paediatric home sleep studies

The Medicare Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) has rejected an application by the Australasian Sleep Association for public-funded home sleep studies for children and adolescents.

“Our volunteer working group has been actively working on this application for more than two years. It has been a long and arduous process leading up to the MSAC decision in early April,” said ASA President, Garun Hamilton.

“We are very disappointed with the decision, but we have received very helpful and positive feedback from the Department of Health and Aged Care and the Chair of MSAC that will help us re-apply fairly quickly.

“I want to extend a special thank you to the paediatric sleep physicians in the small, hardworking volunteer working group who have dropped commitments to provide responses at short notice and grappled with a bureaucratic process that has been at times very difficult. 

“Thank you to Moya Vandeleur, Jasneek Chawla, Karen Waters and Margaret Anne Harris. We couldn’t have got this far without you!,” Garun Hamilton said.

The original application sought funding for:

• Level 2 studies for children 3-18 years without medical complexities
• Level 3 studies for children 3-18 years with sensory issues and for therapeutic monitoring
• Level 4 studies for children in rural and remote areas without access to a diagnostic laboratory.

It was decided during the course of the application’s review to drop the Level 4 aspect due to gaps in the evidence base supporting this specific use of oximetry. The final application considered by MSAC included both Level 2 and Level 3 studies. You can read the Public Summary Document of the decision here. 

“MSAC responded positively to the idea of Level 2 studies being funded for children, and we will prepare a new application focussing only on Level 2 studies for consideration,” Garun Hamilton said.

“It is likely this could be considered by MSAC through an accelerated process, perhaps as early as by the end of this year.”

Questions or comments about this work can be directed to the CEO, Marcia Balzer.