Health and Wellbeing

Health organisations need to solve the complex challenges facing the industry today and into the future. At PwC, we help them achieve this via our collective ingenuity and suite of human-led and tech-powered health and wellbeing services.

Australia’s health and wellbeing sector is more connected and person-centred than ever before. In light of this, and following the impacts of COVID-19 in particular, industry leaders have been forced to rapidly build resilience and capacity. Other long-term industry challenges include the increasing demands and expectations from consumers, rapid digitisation, an increased focus on healthy behaviours and prevention, improving productivity with new models of quality care and freeing up capacity to fuel innovation, invest in people and build infrastructure.

Traditionally, health and wellbeing in Australia is managed across federal and state lines, and between public and private models of care. PwC’s community of solvers has come together to tackle a variety of challenges and providing specialist industry advice for:

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Where next for Healthcare?

Forces of change that are shaping Australia's post COVID-19 recovery

Health Matters

PwC's health-focused publication

Virtual Health

How your health organisation can stay ahead of digital market trends

High Performing Healthcare

Human centred, insight driven, digitally enabled

How we work with health organisations

Health and wellbeing systems all have the same objective: to deliver the highest possible quality of care to the maximum number of people at the lowest possible cost. We are privileged to work with this vital sector to deliver better health outcomes and innovative solutions to all at more affordable, sustainable costs.

We provide health organisations across a range of sectors with current and tailored professional guidance, based on the needs of the organisation and the patient.

Our approach assists organisations to solve for the depth and breadth healthcare needs across the sector. We leverage global perspectives, are focused on outcomes, and we invest in relationships to be able to help the industry solve for healthcare needs and models of care.

We are a passionate community of solvers made up of over 300 health specialists. Our specialists come from diverse professional backgrounds including clinicians, hospital management experts, policy experts, strategists, actuaries, program directors, technologists, deals, tax, legal, clinical risk assurance, health infrastructure and thought leaders in specific topics like eHealth, aged care in Australia, mental health and disability services consulting.

We lead the market in identifying and assembling the right mix of collaborators, advisers, subject matter experts and technology, together with our human ingenuity, to deliver. Through the power of many minds, insights become impact, opportunities become outcomes and Australia prospers.

Our health and wellbeing services

Health consulting services

Work smarter and grow faster to build an effective health organisation through our health consulting services.

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Assurance services in health

Navigate regulatory complexity and strengthen trust and transparency.

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Expert deals services

Succeed across the deal lifecycle by raising capital and completing acquisitions, divestitures, and alliances.

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Health infrastructure

Put stakeholder experiences at the centre of infrastructure projects with clear and sustainable frameworks.

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Cybersecurity and digital trust

Integrate cybersecurity and digital identity into health & wellbeing solutions for secure digital experiences.

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The Future of Work in Health

Rethink work and explore new and better ways of striking the right balance on mental health and wellbeing.

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Environmental Social Governance (ESG)

Develop valuable sustainability strategies for patients, suppliers, clinicians, investors and the environment.

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Challenges faced by large health and wellbeing subsectors

There are clear challenges that Australian health organisations have the opportunity to solve across the health and wellbeing sector, including:

Aged Care

Improving the safety and quality of aged care services in Australia
Meeting the needs of those in remote, rural and regional Australia
Growing levels of care for the increasing number of Australians suffering dementia
Attracting, retaining, developing and rewarding a ‘workforce of the future’
Achieving financial sustainability.

Broader Reform Context:
- Almost half of all Australians (45.5%) aged over 16 will experience mental ill-health in their lifetime and one in five (20.0%) in any given year
- Supporting Australians to be mentally well encompasses support for those experiencing suicidality, mental distress and/or ill-health, along with prevention, early intervention and wellbeing promotion
- Mental ill-health affects people of all ages from all backgrounds and locations across Australia, often linked to experiences of disadvantage, trauma and other social issues. Risk factors can include genetics, homelessness, unemployment, alcohol and other drug use, discrimination and racial injustice, and stressful life events
- The recent Productivity Commission Inquiry into mental health highlighted a comprehensive reform agenda to address the unsustainable mental health system in Australia
- Key reform challenges include rising rates and complexity of mental illness; cumulative impacts of environmental shocks such as bushfires, floods and pandemics; the need to attract, train and retain a comprehensive and contemporary workforce that is responsive to the growing spectrum of need; a more connected and integrated system that improves the experience of people seeking care and data and evidence to support ongoing improvement of Australia’s mental health system
Mental ill-health costs Australia $43-70bn each year and the benefits of system reform would amount to more than $19bn annually
Developing a contemporary and sustainable mental health system requires a practical, data-driven and digitally enabled approach that is regionally focused to deliver a population based care model that enables better provision of “right care in the right place at the right time” across the spectrum of mental health
Mental health in the Workplace context points:
- Workplaces are increasingly being recognised as soft entry points to support individuals and the mental health system.
- Some work conditions and settings can increase workers’ experiences of stress, and the risk of developing a mental illness, (most commonly anxiety or depression).
- However, being in work is also good for mental health and there are a range of risk and protective factors for workplaces to understand and take action to better support workers.
- Boards and their workplaces are required under the new WHS legislation (Work Health Safety Act 2020, Clause 17) to understand psychosocial risk in their business and eliminate or minimise these risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
- While we are understanding more about the nature of workplace risks to mental health, the changing nature of modern and hybrid work means that the evidence is still emerging around how this impacts different workers across demographics, industries.
More than one-third of workers (37%)5 consider their employer the main source of mental health support
We need a 21st century approach to doing this, leveraging the strengths of digital technology balanced against the need for social connection and support
Employees expect more from their employer. And beyond it being the right thing to do, there is a clear return to the organisation. For every dollar spent by businesses on successful mental health programs, organisations can expect a return on investment of between $1 and $4 for an average return of $2.306.

Delivering sustained outcomes as a result of the funding and operating environment under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Ensuring sustainability while state governments review and exit direct service delivery
Organising services and embedding an environment of change following the Royal Commission into the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability
We have an NDIS certified team
We provide risk and assurance services to clients for their standards, and provide support across end to end risk and control systems.

Calculating your workers compensation compliance obligations
Providing sophisticated analytics capability
Offering robust reconciliation and testing functionality
Analysing payroll transactional data to determine your rateable remuneration
We provide Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) injury management
We have an OHS Assurance management and Worker compensation assurance control frameworks to support organisations
We have a certification business to help organisations with certification needs.

Reshoring manufacturing and R&D capabilities in Australia in order to obtain greater control over the supply chain
Increasing focus on care in the community and beyond the pill innovations creating opportunities to design new patient and customer experiences
A greater reliance on multichannel customer engagement with fewer and more impactful medical and scientific face to face touchpoints is forcing companies to rethink the set up of commercial organisations
Navigating the shift of expectations on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues and how pharma and life sciences can be seen as a catalyst for positive change.

Keeping up with the speed, adoption and pace of digital transformation
Bridging the gap between technology and traditional in-person experiences
Meeting expectations and demands for increased Australian digital health
Provide organisations with advisory in the transition, ensuring risks, and ongoing compliance obligations are managed effectively.

Providing boards and executives confidence to navigate emerging risks, issues, and compliance obligations, end to end, from clinical to financial.
Improving sustainability
Managing demand and prioritising the right transformation and improvement initiatives (people, process and technology) within a fiscally constrained environment
Ensuring staff have access to the right tools, technologies, equipment and information to deliver high quality and safe care
Creating a culture that promotes high performance, collaboration and care, and reduces staff fatigue and burnout
Using data and information in a way that creates meaningful insights to deliver high quality outcomes.

Meeting the growing expectations of a dynamic, digitally enabled and more efficient and effective healthcare experience
Achieving Board to Ward alignment on strategic direction
Agreeing expectations and performance targets supported by appropriate governance and accountability structures
Fostering the right skills and capabilities to empower clinicians to be greater leaders and manage constrained budgets
Delivering what patients value by linking technology, to clinician experience and patient experience
Risk and Assurance advisory services.

Dealing with increasing claim numbers as Australia opens up
Increasing the current workforce if COVID-19 claim numbers rise
Relieving financial pressures that place a renewed focus on productivity
Considering relevant presumptive legislation
Identifying opportunities to augment core capabilities and deliver value to improve service delivery
Repairing COVID-19 exposed shortcomings in IT infrastructure and data quality
Reflecting on and documenting learnings from the pandemic to prepare for any future pandemics.