May 2, 2012

Ontario CACS for NACRS

The Health Based Allocation Model (HBAM) is the new funding methodology of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) under the Health System Funding Strategy.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is supporting the implementation and use of the MOHLTC’s HBAM methodology. Support includes providing monitoring tools, such as record-level and comparative reports containing the grouping methodology output for the five methodologies that are used as direct inputs for the HBAM methodology.

The Ontario-specific Comprehensive Ambulatory Classification System (CACS) weights are the ambulatory care weights used within HBAM. The Ontario MOHLTC develops the weights and provides them to CIHI for reporting purposes. The weighting methodology is the same as that used for the national CACS weight; only the weight values differ. In both methodologies, age, anesthetic technique and investigative technology (IT) are factors.

For any questions about this bulletin or the attached documents, contact the NACRS team at nacrs@cihi.ca.

Download the bulletin (PDF, 295 Kb)

About CIHI

Established in 1994, CIHI is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that provides essential information on Canada’s health system and the health of Canadians. Funded by federal, provincial and territorial governments, CIHI is guided by a Board of Directors made up of health leaders across the country. Our vision is to improve Canada’s health system and the well-being of Canadians by being a leading source of unbiased, credible and comparable information that will enable health leaders to make better-informed decisions.