Newborn qualification status

Guide for use:

A newborn qualification status is assigned to each patient day within a newborn episode of care.

A newborn patient day is qualified if the infant meets at least one of the following criteria:

• is the second or subsequent live born infant of a multiple birth, whose mother is currently an admitted patient,
• is admitted to an intensive care facility in a hospital, being a facility approved by the Commonwealth Minister for the purpose of the provision of special care,
• is admitted to, or remains in hospital without its mother.

A newborn patient day is unqualified if the infant does not meet any of the above criteria.

The day on which a change in qualification status occurs is counted as a day of the new qualification status.

If there is more than one qualification status in a single day, the day is counted as a day of the final qualification status for that day.

The newborn baby's qualified days are eligible for health insurance benefits purposes and the patient day count under the Australian Health Care Agreements. In this context, newborn qualified days are equivalent to acute days and may be denoted as such.

The days when a newborn baby does not meet these criteria are classified as unqualified (if they are nine days old or less) and should not be counted as patient days under the Australian Health Care Agreements and are not eligible for health insurance benefit purposes.