Australian Government - Department of Health and Ageing

Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC)

Deadlines for assessment

2013 Deadlines for the Evaluation Sub-Committee (ESC) and the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) in relation to a submission-based assessment (SBA)

All deadlines are COB Wednesday pre-ESC and COB Thursday pre-MSAC:
Notification deadline113 September 201210 January 201316 May 2013
Lodgement deadline211 October 201213 February 201313 June 2013
Applicant provided contracted critique3 for comment16 January 201315 May 201311 September 2013
Applicant comments on contracted critique due30 January 201329 May 201325 September 2013
ESC meeting date13 - 15 February 201313 - 14 June 201310 - 11 October 2013
Applicant provided ESC Report4 for comment14 March 201311 July 20137 November 2013
Applicant comments on ESC Report due28 March 201325 July 201321 November 2013
MSAC meeting date4 - 5 April 20131 - 2 August 201328 - 29 November 2013

The SBA is the means by which an applicant can provide the evidentiary basis for MSAC to appraise a proposed medical service and so advise the Minister in relation to its public funding.

1 Notification deadline

Each applicant is required to notify the ESC Secretariat at least 4 weeks before it wishes to lodge an SBA. Applicants are encouraged to provide this information earlier if they are able to do so.

2 Lodgement deadline

Each applicant is required to lodge its SBA for consideration by ESC on the first day of the previous ESC meeting. This means that the SBA should be considered by ESC at its following meeting. For example, an SBA lodged on 9 February 2012 will be considered by ESC on 14-15 June 2012.

3 Contracted critique

A critique of a submission is undertaken by a health technology assessment group contracted by the department. The critique comments on the appropriateness of the methodology used for identifying and evaluating evidence, whether the analysis undertaken by the applicant is unbiased, reproducible, transparent and well-documented, and comment on the strength of the evidence supporting the conclusions drawn in the assessment.

Applicants will be provided the contracted critique for any comment. Comments are due within two weeks of receipt of the critique. If an applicant wishes to provide comment, it can do so in a separate document of up to five pages (plus up to two further pages for figures and/or tables as necessary) for consideration at the ESC and MSAC meetings.

4 ESC Report

The ESC Report is the document that summarises the evidence and outlines the issues for MSAC consideration discussed in the ESC meeting and also addresses comments received from the applicant. It later forms the basis of the beginning of the Public Summary Document. Applicants will be provided the opportunity to provide any comment on the ESC Report. Comments are due within two weeks of receipt of the ESC Report. If an applicant wishes to provide comment, it can do so in a separate document of up to three pages.

Page currency, Latest update: 17 December, 2012