No clarity on funding – an anxious wait

This week, the second Aged Care Royal Commission Response Bill is again before the Senate.

It includes a new case-mix funding model for residential aged care, called AN-ACC, planned to be introduced on 1 October 2022. This model requires additional funding to support an increase in care minutes and incorporates the $10 per resident per day basic daily fee supplement introduced in July 2021.

The government is yet to announce the average funding level, advising it will be higher than the current Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).  It is unclear how it will compare to the targeted minimum 200 minutes per resident per day, to be reported from later this year and made mandatory in October 2023.

As aged care providers begin to prepare their budgets for the next financial year, they have no clarity on the amount they will receive for service delivery, nor the level of staffing the funding will support.

Later this year, a new star rating system based on quality indicators, service compliance ratings, consumer experience interviews and staff care minutes will commence. It will be challenging for providers if they are rated against a care minutes standard that they are not funded to deliver.

The Government is also consulting on the new Support at Home Program, due to start in July 2023, replacing the Commonwealth Home Support, Home Care Packages and Short Term Restorative Care programs.

It is proposed that clients will be provided with an individualised support plan outlining the services delivered and their frequency. Under the new system, the individualised budgets introduced as part of consumer directed care in Home Care Packages will be scrapped. Services will be delivered in a remarkably similar way to the NDIS. Providers will receive funding once the services are delivered. Again, there is no clarity as yet of the funding that will be applied against this new Support at Home Program.

The Government has been diligent in delivering the recommendations of the Royal Commission, especially where it relates to reporting and compliance. It is critical that they also deliver on the promise of additional funding to ensure that older Australians are given the level of care and support that they deserve.

Opinion piece by Darren Birbeck
Chief Executive Officer
Resthaven Incorporated