John Pilla
Bachelor of Science (Hons), (University of Adelaide), Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, (University of South Australia) Member and Committee Chair, Australasian Evaluation Society.
John was promoted to Executive Director, Health Funding Policy and Program Evaluation, during April 2023, following his work as a GENI Director and member of GENI’s Value Based Health Care (VBHC) Committee during 2021 and 2022. He has effectively progressed work on Value Based Reimbursement and other VBHC reform opportunities for Australia public hospitals. He also participates in the GENI COVID-19 Pandemic and VBHC study. This is assisting the Australian national reform agenda for funding arrangements for hospitals and aged care.
John has worked in the private and public health care sectors for over 30 years in a range of roles including Director, KPMG’s national healthcare practice and prior to this, John held executive roles in federal and state governments. John has been involved for several years in national hospital funding policy development and has extensive health program evaluation experience. John operates his own consultancy practice and is an evaluation advisor for a range of organisations including two Indigenous owned organisations. He is a recipient of a national award for best practice in evaluation and is a member of the South Australian Australasian Evaluation Society Coordinating Committee.
Health Program Evaluation
Evaluation is a fundamental element of program and policy development and review. John’s passion is to assist organisations with embedding evaluation as a ‘way of life’ rather than as an afterthought of a funded program. In this way, evaluation is part of the process of continuous quality improvement.
John’s evaluation experience covers a wide range of policies, methodologies, and sectors. John has evaluated national reforms in aged care, primary health care and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care that led to national reform. His involvement in the evaluation of the coordinated care trials led to reforms of general practice. John’s evaluation of the Closing the Gap health strategy contributed to the service delivery reforms in rural and remote areas of Australia.
John has used evaluation methods for a wide range of purposes including program accountability, program improvement and program development. His work with community organisations in Victoria assisted these organisations to strengthen their service delivery programs. His work with a state government focused on building evaluation into organisational development programs.
Health funding policy
John has been at the forefront of hospital funding policy development for several years. His contribution commenced as a member of the South Australian team that implemented Activity Based Funding (ABF) in that state in the 1990s. This was followed by his role as the leading architect in the development of the national classification system for acute care now used in ABF. John was part of the team within the Department and Prime Minister and Cabinet that advised on the development of a national hospital funding system and has undertaken several projects for the Independent Hospitals Pricing Authority.
Health funding policy is not just about supporting the efficient delivery of health services. It is also an important building block to improve the quality of health services. John led the team that developed a key measure of hospital quality that is now part of hospital funding policy in Australia. John continues to work with national bodies, state governments and individual health services to assist with both development and implementation of health funding policies and systems.
John’s experience can assist GENI’s imperative to facilitate cost effectiveness, equity in funding worldwide, and to forge links with national bodies that set standards, regulation, and funding processes.