News

The Minister for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt AM, has appointed John Dicer as the new Aged Care Pricing Commissioner.

The office of the Aged Care Pricing Commissioner was established in 2013 to help ensure that people requiring aged care places are not over charged.

“Older Australians need to be sure that when they need residential aged care support they are paying a fair price,” Minister Wyatt said.

“I’m pleased to appoint John Dicer as Australia’s new Aged Care Pricing Commissioner.

“John brings with him broad public and private sector experience including a strong background in regulatory matters, compliance, risk management and complex pricing issues.”

Read more:

Appointment of New Aged Care Pricing Commissioner (.pdf)

In this issue:

• Review of the ACSIHAG Program
• Mandatory flu vaccination program – more information now available

Read more:

Information for Aged Care Providers – Issue 2018/8 (.pdf)

The 2018-2019 Annual Service, Support & Upgrade Fee Invoices have been emailed out for renewal for the coming financial year.

All annual fees currently expire on the 30th June 2018 so please ensure your accounts department has processed your invoice prior to expiry to continue receiving support and all upgrades from 1 July 2018 onward.

If your accounts payable department has an updated email address for invoices to be sent to or you didn’t receive the invoice last week then please email accounts@manad.com.au to request another copy or to update your details and email address.

We are now not too far away from completing the last few features that will be going into our next minor release, version 5.6.

For those of you who came to our User Group Meetings in both Melbourne & Sydney towards the end of 2017, you would have seen and heard what many of these are.

Some of the highlights are:

• An all-new ‘Risk Register’ feature
• One ‘reply’ will be allowed to a message received via the Messageboard
• Template macros can be created for Progress Notes
• Add your own ‘Guides’ for staff to follow for each of the Monitoring/Charting items
• More powerful charting with Pivot Grids
• An all-new ‘App’ module for those licenced to use the Manad Plus Mobiel App
• ‘Report an assault’ and ‘My Incidents’ added to the User module
• More use of colours to tag your Reference items
• Several new reports
• …plus more!

We’ll continue to update you via our eNews as we get closer to finalising the testing and have created the Release Notes which will be made available for download. The final version should be available in early-mid June.

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

Australian Ageing Agenda

New collaboration to tackle remote aged care workforce issues

Workers want flexible working conditions and greater recognition

At long last, mental health support for residents

Aged care CEOs react to the budget

Senate inquiry launched into tax practices of for-profit providers

Other

ABC – Aged care ratings do not tell what you need to know about Australian nursing homes

ITNews – My Health Record will share de-identified data by default

ACG – Secret aged care audit sparks concern

ITNews – Govt reveals My Health Record opt out window

The department has received a number of enquiries from providers about when an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) assessment is required. A subsidy cannot be paid to an approved provider for providing care to a person, unless the person is approved under the Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) as a care recipient.

Read more:

Check for valid ACAT approval

Media Release: 15 May 2018

Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt AM is calling on young Australians to consider diverse and exciting new careers in the rapidly growing aged care sector.

Launching Australia’s first aged care Next Gen Young Leaders Forum in Perth today, Minister Wyatt said strong, long-term demand and the promise of new professional pathways made the sector an ideal employment choice.

“We are entering a golden age of ageing,” said Minister Wyatt. “In WA alone it’s projected employment in health, aged care and social assistance will reach more than 180,000 by 2022, as our population ages and the sector becomes increasingly diverse.

Read more:

Wanted: The Next Generation of Young Aged Care Leaders (.pdf)

Media Release: 15 May 2018

Ensuring thousands of new residential aged care places are located where they are most needed is the aim of a national consultation process underway from today.

Minister for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt AM, said a wide range of aged care stakeholders were invited to take part, to help inform the 2018-19 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR), announced in the Turnbull Government’s 2018–19 Budget.

Funding for aged care will increase by $5 billion over the next four years, including for 13,500 new residential aged care places, 775 short term restorative care places and a further $60 million in capital investment, to be made available in this ACAR.

Minister Wyatt said the results of the consultation would help guide the distribution and targeting of new places and capital grants in each state and territory.

Read more:

Consultations on Location of New Aged Care Places (.pdf)

2018–19 ACAR Consultation—Identifying Residential Aged Care Needs

The Minister for Aged Care, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP has announced the opening of the 2018-19 ACAR consultation to ensure thousands of new residential aged care places are located where they are most needed.

A short survey is now open on the Consultation Hub. The survey closes on Monday, 28 May 2018.

Read more:

Invitation to participate in ACAR consultation

Media Release: 08 May 2018

The 2018–19 Budget is guaranteeing the essential health services that Australians rely on, with a $12.4 billion increase in the Health Budget and a $414.5 billion investment in health, aged care and sport.

We will increase:

• Medicare funding by $4.8 billion;
• public hospital funding by more than $30 billion;
• investment in new medicines by $2.4 billion; and
• funding for aged care by $5.0 billion.

Read more:

Guaranteeing essential services – record investment in health (.pdf)

Other Budget Articles:

HCM – $5 Billion For The Aged Care Sector – But Is It Enough?

AAA – Budget: Funding for providers to implement new quality standards

AAA – Budget: Government provides more funding to improve aged care payments system

AAA – Budget: Residential places to go to consumers, new bond levy for providers

ACG – Budget brings “mixed emotions” for aged care

ABC – Budget 2018: Aged-care sector gets $1.6b to assist older Australians with services in their own homes