The Department of Health and Aged Care has revealed that "advice on pricing will be provided before the end of the year ahead of more detailed advice by the end of March 2025" in a Support at Home webinar held last Thursday 5 December.
The advice was offered in direct response to questions from attendees, not as part of the formal presentation.
"We've heard from participant representatives that pricing needs to be provided as soon as possible to support older people to be able to consider their budgets, both in terms of the services they want to access and any associated contributions ahead of 1 July 2025," Jasmine Snow, Acting Assistant Secretary Support at Home with the Department of Health and Aged Care, said.
"Stakeholders have also flagged potential impacts on investment and viability in the sector if price caps are set inappropriately, and the benefits of taking some time to gather live data to make sure caps are appropriate.
"We're looking really carefully at the nature of the advice to ensure that arrangements are implementable, support sector stability and viability, as well as continuity and availability of services to support home participants from 1 July 2025."
Webinar attendees also heard the full Support at Home Program Manual won't be released until late March 2025.
Delays threaten reform success
Shadow Minister for Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston told The SOURCE the Government is "failing to provide critical information in a timely manner" which is "preventing the successful implementation" of the reforms.
“This is exactly why the Coalition sought to amend the recent Aged Care Bill to include adequate provisions to allow for the sector to prepare for these changes, but the Government voted those amendments down," she stated.
Timeframe is "unreasonable"
Several operators have expressed concern about the timeline for the transition to Support at Home, warning they will have little time to prepare their staff and systems.
Sarah Newman, General Manager BaptistCare at home told The SOURCE, "we are certainly concerned regarding the extremely tight timeframes for finalisation and implementation of the Support at Home reforms", adding that if an election is called and the Government enters caretaker period, there could be even further delays.
"We believe the timeline will now be inadequate and, if forced through, may cause poor care outcomes for our clients," she said.
In its submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Aged Care 2024, prepared in October, Australia's largest Not For Profit aged care provider Bolton Clarke wrote: "Government’s proposed timeline where initial prices will be published in November 2024 and detailed prices will be published in February 2025 is just unreasonable." The timeline has slipped even further since then.
Checklist, IT specs
The DoHAC is developing a Provider Checklist and Services Australia will release IT specifications before the end of the year, attendees heard in response to questions about support for providers to implement the reforms.
Aged care providers can provide feedback on the reforms and the support they're receiving through the Aged Care Reform Sector Pulse Survey, which is open until Friday 13 December 2024 (tomorrow).