Month: September 2016

The Department of Health has released a new edition of its ‘Information for Aged Care Providers’ newsletter.

Read more:

Information for Aged Care Providers – Issue #2016/18 (.pdf)

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt AM, MP has today announced the appointment of David Tune AO PSM to lead the Aged Care Legislated Review.

The changes announced to aged care in 2012 included a comprehensive review of the aged care sector in 2016-17. This review will inform ongoing reforms to aged care.

“Mr Tune is the ideal choice to lead this important work, due to his extensive work across economic and social policy reform agendas and his knowledge of the aged care system,” Minister Wyatt said.

“Mr Tune was Secretary of the Department of Finance between 2009 and 2014 and has also held senior positions in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Treasury.”

Read more:

David Tune to Lead Major Review of Aged Care Reforms (.pdf)

The Management Advantage office will be closed next Friday 30th September for the ‘day before the Grand Final Public Holiday’.

IMPORTANT: The Manad Plus Help Desk will be open on Friday 30th September.

The schedules for residential and home care fees and charges, as well as subsidies and supplements have been updated to take effect from 20 September 2016 in line with changes to the basic age pension and indexation rates. The new rates are now available and include:

• Maximum Basic Daily Fee (Residential Care) and Standard Resident contribution – including respite residents is $48.44
• Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR) will decrease from 6.01% to 5.76% for the period of 1 October 2016 to 30 December 2016.
• The Base Interest Rate remains unchanged at 3.75%.

Read more:

Australian Government Residential Aged Care and Home Care Supplements (.pdf)
Schedule of Fees and Charges for Residential and Home care – for care recipients that commenced care on or after 1 July 2014 (.pdf)
Schedule of Resident Fees and Charges for residents in care on 30 June 2014 (.pdf)
Indexation rates for Residential Aged Care and Home Care Packages and changes to the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR)

A new guide to combining aged care services to assist approved providers manage their aged care places is now available on the department’s website.

This guide explains the process involved, and some important things approved providers should consider before making this business decision.

Read more:

New guide to combining aged care services
Guide to combining aged care services (.pdf)

The latest edition of the Residential Aged Care Communiqué is now available.

The Residential Aged Care Communiqué (RAC Communiqué) is an electronic publication containing narrative case reports about lessons learned from the Coroners’ investigations into preventable deaths in Residential Aged Care facilities.

Read more:

Residential Aged Care Communiqué – Volume 11, Issue 3, August 2016 (.pdf)

The department wishes to alert all Australian Government subsidised aged care services to the Tasmanian Coroner’s inquest findings related to the use of bed poles in aged care facilities.

The Tasmanian Coroner’s report recommends that aged care services immediately cease the use of model KA524 bed poles (or similar) due to the unacceptable risk of death associated with this device.

Read more:

Industry alert: Risk associated with use of KA524 bed poles (or similar)

Tasmanian Coroner Full Report (.pdf)

The Aged Care Financing Authority (ACFA) presented its 2016 Report on Funding and Financing of the Aged Care Industry to government on 29 July 2016.

This report examines the structure and operation of the Australian aged care sector and its key characteristics.

Read the report to find out more on:

• early observations on the impact of recent reforms
• funding and financial performance of the sector based on 2014-15 data
• emerging opportunities and challenges for the sector.

Read more:

2016 Aged Care Financing Authority Annual Report
2016 Report on Funding and Financing of the Aged Care Industry (.pdf)

The Department of Health has released a new edition of its ‘Information for Aged Care Providers’ newsletter.

Read more:

Information for Aged Care Providers – Issue #2016/17 (.pdf)

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency has released the August 2016 issue of their ‘Quality Standard’ newsletter.

Read more:

Quality Standard – August 2016 (.pdf)