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Aged Care Updates

May 28, 2018

A number of positive changes are on the way for our aged care system, thanks to recent Federal budget allocations and the ongoing evolution of My Aged Care (MAC). Whilst the increased Home Care Package allocation is not enough to meet the demand, it is nevertheless welcome. The Department of Health have also allocated funds for MAC system navigation support, which is something many of us have been advocating for. Again, the amount allocated is not huge, however hopefully the pilot projects will demonstrate the benefit and wider need for this vital, ongoing support.

Here’s a summary of key beneficial changes:

A further 14,000 level 3 & 4 Home Care Packages. In addition to the 6,000 packages released in the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, this takes the total up to 20,000 over the next 4 years. It is estimated that 8,000 will be available over the course of the 2018-2019 financial year
13,500 Residential Aged Care places
775 Short Term Restorative Care places
$40 million over 5 years for Regional, Rural & Remote (RRR) communities, for building improvements, maintenance and infrastructure
$105m allocated to expand services to the Indigenous community in RRR locations
Streamlined National Screening & Assessment Form (NSAF), due for release in June 2018
Aged Care system navigation pilots to enhance face-to-face support across Australia; 30 aged care information hubs, 20 community hubs (peer-to-peer support), 6 specialists offering one-on-one support for vulnerable people, 6 Financial Information Support Officers in DHS
Integrated national assessment workforce combining ACAT & RAS from 2020
$29.2m for a revised reablement assessment model in CHSP: Trialed in 4 RAS sites, National evaluation
$5.3 million over four years from 2018-2019 for the development of technological solutions to support people living with dementia
$22m allocated to fund trials of specialist elder abuse services to protect vulnerable Australians
$300,000 allocated for an impact study to look into ‘funding following the consumer’ rather than being given to service providers
$50 million over 2 years from 2018-2019 to assist Residential Aged Care providers to implement the new Aged Care Quality Standards. However, Home Care providers will not receive any funding to support the transition to the new standards

The Department of Health are in the process of issuing new CHSP Agreements for 2018-2020, and these are being emailed to service providers.

Changes include:

Service Providers submitting an annual report including wellness and reablement outcomes on 31 October each year
From 1 July 2018, the department will be undertaking an internal audit of up to 10 per cent of service provider’s service delivery data on My Aged Care and the Data Exchange. The audit will assist the department to better understand CHSP client pathways and to review whether the services delivered are assisting clients to meet their independence and wellness related goals as agreed in their support plans
All clients currently receiving CHSP services who are not registered with MAC will need to be registered in the system
Updated CHSP Programme Manual: A new chapter on implementing wellness & reablement, Clearer flexibility provisions, Clearer guidance on CHSP interactions with other programs

To view the updated CHSP manual, please visit: Updated CHSP Programme Manual

ACSA have also put together an excellent 2018-2019 Budget Analysis, so for further details, please visit: ACSA 2018-2019 Budget Analysis