There is "little correlation" between Federal Government-granted star ratings and the actual performance of aged care homes, a new report claims, with homes non-compliant with the Government's Quality Standards still being rated 'good' or 'excellent' under the star ratings system.
"I hope [the Government] will revisit the star rating system and build a more robust and transparent process that is actually useful for people choosing and comparing residential aged care but my guess is they won't because that means they have to admit they got it wrong," Adjunct Professor Rodney Jilek told The SOURCE.
Adjunct Professor Rodney Jilek
Rodney is Managing Director of Aged Care Consulting & Advisory Services Australasia, which assists aged care homes with accreditation, compliance, and training, and Founder and Managing Director of NDIS provider Community Home Australia.
Non-compliance vs a non-compliance decision
But a spokesperson for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) said homes that demonstrate a willingness and ability to remedy non-compliance will not have a decision made against them, and therefore non-compliance will not affect their star rating.
"Under the rules for the star rating system, there is a difference between non-compliance and a non-compliance decision," the spokesperson said.
"Non-compliance is defined as the failure of an aged care provider to meet one or more of the regulations and standards as set out in the Aged Care Act 1997, whereas a non-compliance decision is when the Commission uses one of its formal regulatory powers in response to identified non-compliance.
"A finding of non-compliance in itself does not impact a service's star rating; rather it is only where the Commission then uses its formal powers to require a service to take corrective action that a service’s star rating will be impacted."
Creating a culture for improvement
"We want to create an environment where providers are incentivised to actively engage with us and demonstrate that they are willing to take necessary action to self-correct as soon as possible when things go wrong," the Commission's spokesperson went on.
"That’s obviously much more efficient for the provider and the Commission, but most importantly it produces the best outcome for older Australians.
"That’s because it creates an incentive for providers to get ahead of the regulator and start to address non-compliance in advance of the Commission needing to intervene. This then allows us to focus more on active case-management of higher risk providers and/or those that have had a pattern of non-compliance until we are satisfied that risks related to the non-compliance have been satisfactorily managed.
"Our overall approach to managing non-compliance means that there will be times when a service on My Aged Care has non-compliance recorded against it that has not influenced its overall star rating.
"Where that is the case, it does not mean that the Commission is ignoring the existence of the non-compliance. Rather, it indicates that the Commission has determined that for that provider at that time, use of a formal regulatory power is unnecessary because the provider has responded promptly to the non-compliance finding and is already demonstrating their commitment to fixing the problem."
The spokesperson said the Department will review the star rating system this year, including examining its design.
The star ratings system has experienced other difficulties. Twice, the rollout of new star ratings have been "paused" due to technical problems.
