Month: March 2019

The schedules for residential and home care subsidies and supplements that take effect from 20 March 2019 have now been released and added to Manad Plus.

Some of the new rates are:

• Maximum Basic Daily Fee: $51.21
• Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR): 5.96% for the period of 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2019
• The Base Interest Rate (BIR): 3.75% for the period of 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2019

IMPORTANT: Changes to ACFI subsidy rates (& RCS…if you still have any)

In addition to the Daily ACFI subsidy rates and the additional daily ACFI subsidy amount for the Quality Care Fund, the $320 million temporary general subsidy boost will be paid as an additional daily ACFI subsidy amount for the period 20 March 2019 to 30 June 2019.

Read more:

Schedule of Fees and Charges for Residential and Home Care From 20 March 2019 (.pdf)

Schedule of Fees and Charges for Pre 1 July 2014 Residents from 20 March 2019 (.pdf)

Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements from 20 March 2019 (.pdf)

Reports of the University of Wollongong’s Resource Utilisation and Classification Study (RUCS), proposing a new residential aged care funding model, are available on the department’s website.

Consultation

Consultation on the proposed funding model closes 31 May 2019. Visit the Consultation Hub to view the discussion paper and make a submission.

Presentation

A presentation discussing the reports’ findings will be available shortly.

Read more:

Proposed new residential aged care funding model

Resource Utilisation and Classification Study

Proposal for a new residential aged care funding model

Alternative Aged Care Assessment, Classification System and Funding Models – Final Report (.pdf)

In this issue:

Reminder: Webinar – My Aged Care operational update – 19 March 2019

Home Care:

Requirements for entering home care information in the service finder

Residential Care:

New tool to monitor medication use

Read more:

Information for Aged Care Providers Newsletter – Issue #2019/4 (.pdf)

The Commission has just released a new report on its website detailing and analysing what consumers are saying about the quality of care in residential aged care services.

La Trobe University’s Australian Institute for Primary Care & Ageing conducted the analysis, using data from the Commission’s Consumer Experience Reports (CERs), compiled from structured consumer interviews during visits to aged care services from 9 May 2017 to 4 July 2018.

The data was collected from 17,195 consumers living in 1,159 residential aged care services across Australia – covering about 43 per cent of all residential aged care services.

Read more:

Analysis of Consumer Experience Report (CER) data

La Trobe University Analysis of CER data (.pdf)

From 1 July 2019 reporting of clinical quality indicators for all Australian Government subsidised residential aged care providers will be mandatory.

Providers will be required to submit quarterly data through the My Aged Care Provider Portal, or to the Department using a user-friendly template, on three clinical quality indicators:

• pressure injuries
• use of physical restraint
• unplanned weight loss.

Under the new program, data will need to be provided for the 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019 quarter, and for future quarters.

Read more:

Mandatory quality indicators for residential aged care services

Guidance for residential aged care services on the Quality Indicators in Residential Aged Care Program

Quality Indicators as part of the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle (.pdf)

The Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP has today announced the results of the 2018-19 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) comprising:

• 13,500 new residential aged care places worth an estimated $907 million per year and
• up to $60 million in capital grant funding.

The new places are the largest ever allocation and a 36.2 per cent increase on the 9,911 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) places announced in 2016–17.

Read more:

2018-19 ACAR – Allocation of Residential Care Places and Capital Grant Funding

To protect your security, Windows operating system updates are dual-signed using both the SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash algorithms to authenticate that updates come directly from Microsoft and were not tampered with during delivery. Due to weaknesses in the SHA-1 algorithm and to align to industry standards Microsoft will only sign Windows updates using the more secure SHA-2 algorithm exclusively.

Customers running legacy OS versions (Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 SP2) will be required to have SHA-2 code signing support installed on their devices by July 2019.

Any devices without SHA-2 support will not be offered Windows updates after July 2019.

Read more:

Windows 7’s support deadline may expire in July, if you don’t apply this patch

2019 SHA-2 Code Signing Support requirement for Windows and WSUS

All good things must come to an end, even Windows 7.

After January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7.

Read more:

Support for Windows 7 is ending

In Case You Missed It – Below are links to recent articles on Aged Care and Healthcare that may be of interest:

Govt considering aged care database

Physical Restraint Doesn’t Protect Patients – There Are Better Alternatives

Sweden’s Community-Based Aged Care Philosophies Take Hold World-Wide

Aged care provider peaks give evidence at royal commission

ROYAL COMMISSION: Dementia training falls short, more staff not the answer

Mandatory repositioning a turn for the worse

Millions opt-out of My Health Record

Crime syndicate hacks 15,000 medical files at Cabrini Hospital, demands ransom

To fax or not to fax?

Witnesses share experiences with Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety

Aged care royal commission: Issues will get worse as demand grow, union warns

Diversity plans target marginalised groups

Spotlight On Aged Care

New Accreditation Scheme To Assure Retirement Village Quality For Residents

Royal Commission Hearing, Flagged Concerns About The Lack Of Transparency

Concerns royal commission sees industry as complacent

The Royal Commission Into Aged Care – Now’s The Time To Concentrate On High-Value Action

Why more chefs, trained by the Maggie Beer Foundation, could end up working in your local aged care facility

There are more people older than 65 than younger than 5 for the first time — here’s how that’s changing the world

Teaching facilities can address royal commission quality concerns

Welcome to the first issue of 2019. This will be a busy year for all our readers with the Royal Commission and the introduction of the new standards for accreditation.

This edition focuses on one case with so many issues it is almost too difficult to comprehend. Each gap in care probably would not have led to the resident’s death, but together, the combination was fatal.

The case exemplifies the complexity of issues confronting the Royal Commission and highlights that improving aged care requires an approach that involves the whole community as evident by the recommendations made by the coroner to multiple organisations.

Read more:

Residential Aged Care Communiqué – Volume 14 Issue 1 February 2019 (.pdf)