On 27 February 2025, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) granted authorisation to Catholic Health Australia to enable its members to:
- collectively negotiate hospital and healthcare funding arrangements with Funding Organisations
- collectively negotiate with suppliers and collectively boycott large suppliers in certain circumstances
- share data for benchmarking purposes.
The conduct has been authorised in similar terms since 2014.
The ACCC has not authorised Catholic Health Australia’s members to engage in a collective boycott of the 5 largest private health insurers. The ACCC considers that this aspect of the proposed conduct is likely to result in significant public detriments.
The ACCC has granted authorisation for a period of 10 years, until 21 March 2035.
Further details about the application and determination are available on the ACCC’s public register.