Home Care Evolves
The Home Care Packages Program continues to be subject to significant reform by the Australian Government as they look at ways of ensuring that the Program evolves to meet the care needs of older Australians. With people living longer and healthier lives, it is essential that as they age, they have choice about where they live and about their care.
What is changing?
As part of this reform, the Government wants to improve the transparency and comparability of pricing. From 1 July 2019, home care providers will be required to publish their pricing information in a new standardised home care pricing Schedule on the My Aged Care website. The Schedule will provide information on the common services and costs under a home care package, to better support people to understand and compare home care pricing information. For example, all prices will be published as dollar values, not percentages.
Providers are no longer able to charge a separate administration charge for business-related costs. These costs will need to be included within the price for care and services to ensure you can see the all-inclusive costs for delivering the service. Providers will publish their prices for package management within the Schedule. Package management includes activities that are directly related to managing your Home Care Package. These include preparing monthly statements, managing your package funds, and compliance and quality assurance activities required for home care.
What other factors should I consider when choosing a provider?
Anglican Care’s General Manager of Community Care Services, Chris Giles, stresses that it is essential to consider a range of factors when choosing your home care provider, not just cost.
“Anglican Care delivers packages within an integrated model and has a team of experts available to support you today and in the future, including a physiotherapist, dietitian, occupational therapist, podiatrist, and Nurse Practitioner,” says Chris. “We work closely with consumers to identify your needs, adapting your services as you need, and educating you along the way – we like to think of it as a circle of support with you at the centre.”
Learn more In Episode 2 of our NEW Podcast Series Let’s Talk Aged Care, Jacqui Culver – Nurse Practitioner at Anglican Care, discusses important factors for people to consider when choosing home care and explains what case management is.