Home care providers’ operating results declined in the March 2023 quarter, according to StewartBrown’s latest Aged Care Financial Performance Survey Sector Report.
Home care operators achieved on average a surplus of $3.39 per client per day, down from $4.29 pcpd at the same time the previous year.
Home care clients held on to more of their Home Care Package (HCP) funding, with revenue utilisation down 0.6% to 84.9% of available package funding.
Profit margins declined from 6.3% as of March 2022 to 4.9% at March 2023, driven by the decrease in revenue utilisation.
Image credit: StewartBrown
Other notable statistics included:
- The number of hours staff spent on care continued to decline, falling from 5.51 hours per client per week in March 2021, to 5.31 hpcpw in March 2022, to 5.14 hpcpw in the latest quarter.
- Unspent funds are now at an average of $11,778 per care recipient ($10,690 as at March 2022) – or a total of $2.6 billion.
- Care management revenue as a proportion of total revenue was 18.7% (steady with the March 2022 result of 18.7%).
- Package management revenue as a proportion of total revenue was 11.2% (up from the March 2022 result of 10.1%).
Staffing is the “most crucial concern” for home care operators, just as it is for residential aged care, according to StewartBrown.
A “complicated regulatory environment” is weighing on operating results, and the delay of the new Support at Home program until 1 July 2025 has created a “policy void”, the aged care accountancy specialists said.
The StewartBrown Aged Care Financial Performance Sector Report for the March quarter 2023 incorporates data from 1,1453 aged care homes (91,622 beds) and 69,753 Home Care Packages.
You can read the report in full HERE.