The only available data concerning administrative costs in health services is to be found in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) data collected by the OECD. As Ireland currently does not supply data in this format it is impossible to compare Ireland with other countries' data, and indeed, there is no data available from this source in relation to either the UK or Australia. The SHA data focuses on General Government spending on different functions of care. One of these functions of care is "Health administration and health insurance". This is defined as activities of private insurers and central and local authorities and social security. Included are the planning, management, regulation, and collection of funds and handling of claims of the delivery system. Public administrative costs borne by health care providers such as patient records and hospital management are allocated to the providing institutions, not to general administrations. Due to the diverse definitions of administrative costs, it is neither possible nor appropriate to attempt to compare this figure with other jurisdictions.
