News

Attached is a communique from the Department of Human Services.

DHS Provider Communique: Quarterly Review July 2017 (.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 #2017/12 (.pdf)

From 3 July 2017, My Aged Care is making changes to better support clients, including clients with diverse needs and improve access to information for health professionals.

These improvements will support clients through their My Aged Care journey, ensuring they are able to receive the assessments and aged care services they need. The changes will also improve health professionals’ access to information to support them to provide continuity of care for their patients.

Read more:

Improvements to My Aged Care

Service providers: Overview of My Aged Care representation changes

Assessors: Overview of My Aged Care representation changes

Health professionals: overview of changes to improve access to patient information

The next Manad Plus version update, which contains all the various rate updates, has now been finalised and released.

The Indexation of Residential Aged Care and Home Care subsidy and supplement rates to take effect from 1 July 2017 were published earlier this week. If you would like to make yourself familiar with the new rates, you will have received these via our eNews sent out on Tuesday 27th June (you can view that here).

Version 5 clients:

A new version, 5.4.56290.0, has been pushed out to all servers which were online. Those that were offline were not able to receive the upgrade file and you will need to contact our Help Desk to request this again (once your server is back online and able to receive the update file).

Please arrange for your IT Administrator to backup your database first and then run this update when all staff have logged out of Manad Plus, at a time which is convenient to you.

NOTE: We recommend running this when our help desk is open and you can receive support if needed.

Version 4 clients:

A new version, 4.17.10, which will contain the new rates has been created and we are in the process of logging in and manually running this update for you on your server as we have done in the past (or if we have had other arrangements in the past we will continue with this process).

If you have any questions, then please contact our Help Desk:

• support@manad.com.au

• 1300 62 62 32

Commencing July 2017, pharmacists should include the RACFId (residential aged care facility identification number) for the nursing home each time a PBS/RPBS item is dispensed for all of the pharmacy’s nursing home patients.

The changes will make dispensing easier for pharmacists, as the RACFId will be used for PBS/RPBS supplies to all nursing homes. At present, the RACFId is only required for most supplies to nursing homes that have started using the National Residential Medication Chart (NRMC), or a commercial equivalent charting product that complies with PBS legislation.

Read more:

Revised Dispensing for nursing home residents (.pdf)

The world has been hit by a fresh ransomware epidemic spreading rapidly around the globe that uses the same tools exploited in the recent WannaCry epidemic.

The threat appears to be a variant of the Petya malware, which surfaced last year and crashes computers, rebooting them after rewriting the hard disk master boot record.

Read more:

Massive ransomware outbreak hits servers worldwide

What we know so far about the Petya/GoldenEye ransomware

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency has released the June 2017 issue of their ‘Quality Standard’ newsletter.

Read more:

Quality Standard – June 2017 (.pdf)

Australian Aged Care Quality Agency

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency’s draft Cost Recovery Implementation Statement is open for public consultation.

As announced by the government in the 2016-17 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the Quality Agency’s Statement introduces the new levy, payable by residential aged care providers, for the annual unannounced site visit conducted by the Quality Agency.

The new levy is expected to take effect from 1 July 2018.

Public consultation is open until Friday 21 July 2017.

Read more:

Consultation open – residential aged care unannounced site visit levy

Consultation: Cost Recovery Implementation Statement

The schedules for residential and home care subsidies and supplements which take effect from 1 July 2017 have been released.

This includes fees and charges.

The Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR) will also change effective from 1 July 2017.

The Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) subsidy rates are not indexed and so have not changed, giving effect to the Government’s 6 December 2016 announcement of an indexation pause across all ACFI domains in 2017-18.

Changes effective from 1 July 2017

• Relevant (non-ACFI) subsidy and supplement rates have been updated and indexed: Schedule of aged care subsidies and supplements.

• The 2017 scheme of the viability supplement in residential care increases by an additional $2.12 per day as announced by the Minister for Aged Care on 6 December 2016.

• Schedule of Fees and Charges for Residential and Home Care – for care recipients who commenced care on or after 1 July 2014 (has been updated and indexed).

• Schedule of Fees and Charges for Pre 1 July 2014 Residents (has been updated and indexed).

• The associated Department of Human Services quarterly review of fees and charges for all care recipients will be conducted with an effective date of 1 July 2017. Care recipients and providers will receive letters advising where there is a change to a care recipient’s fees and charges or where a refund may be due.

• A consumer who started a Home Care Package before 1 July 2014 can be charged a basic daily fee of up to 17.5% of the basic rate of the single pension. This rate is $10.10 per day.

Changes to MPIR

The Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR) applicable to ‘refund periods’ for refundable deposit balances and accommodation bond balances and for accommodation prices will decrease from 5.78% to 5.73% for the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 September 2017.

The Base Interest Rate remains unchanged at 3.75%.

You can view current and past Refundable Deposit Balance and Accommodation Bond Balance Refund Interest Rates.

You will need to update the daily payment prices published on your own website and in written materials in line with the new MPIR. The daily payment prices published on My Aged Care will be updated automatically.

If you have any queries, please contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.

Read more:

Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements from 1 July 2017 (.pdf)

Schedule of Fees and Charges for Residential and Home Care From 1 July 2017 (.pdf)

Schedule of Fees and Charges for Pre 1 July 2014 Residents From 1 July 2017 (.pdf)

Indexation of Residential Aged Care and Home Care subsidy and supplement rates from 1 July 2017

The schedules for residential and home care subsidies and supplements have been updated and will take effect from 1 July 2017. This includes fees and charges. The Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR) will also change effective from 1 July 2017.

The Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) subsidy rates are not indexed and so have not changed, giving effect to the Government’s 6 December 2016 announcement of an indexation pause across all ACFI domains in 2017-18.

Read more:

Indexation of Residential Aged Care and Home Care subsidy and supplement rates from 1 July 2017