EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Innovative Care Services) Determination 2010 (No. 1)
The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the funding of aged care services. Persons who are approved under the Act to provide flexible aged care services can be eligible to receive flexible care subsidy payments in respect of the care they provide to approved care recipients.
Subsection 52-1(1) of the Act provides that the amount of flexible care subsidy that is payable in respect of a day is the amount determined by the Minister by legislative instrument or worked out in accordance with a method determined by the Minister by legislative instrument. Subsection 52‑1(2) of the Act provides that the Minister may determine rates of flexible care subsidy based on any matters determined by the Minister by legislative instrument.
The Australian Government has announced it will fund consumer directed care in selected Australian Government community aged care programs.
Consumer (or self) directed care allows people to have greater control over their lives by allowing them, to the extent that they are capable and wish to do so, to make choices about the types of care services they access and the delivery of those services, including who will deliver the services and when they will be delivered.
To allow this form of care to be delivered by approved providers who have been allocated places in respect of flexible care, amendments have been made to the Flexible Care Subsidy Principles 1997. Those amendments specify consumer directed care as a kind of care for which flexible care subsidy may be payable.
The purpose of the Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Innovative Care Services) Determination 2010 (No. 1) is to specify the amount of flexible care subsidy payable in respect of different types of innovative care, including consumer directed care.
In summary, from 1 July 2010, the flexible care subsidy for a day for a care recipient receiving consumer directed care is:
- for consumer directed low care – the same as the community care subsidy amount which is worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Community Care Subsidy Amount) Determination 2010 (No. 1)
- for consumer directed high care – the same as the flexible care subsidy amount for extended aged care at home (EACH) which is worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Extended Aged Care at Home) Determination 2010 (No. 1)
- for consumer directed high care dementia – the same as the flexible care subsidy amount for extended aged care at home – dementia (EACHD) which is worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Extended Aged Care at Home - Dementia) Determination 2010 (No. 1).
The Determination also sets the flexible care subsidy rate, from 1 July 2010, for the provision of disability ageing in place services provided by nine approved providers who originally received allocations of places through the Aged Care Innovative Pool in 2003 and 2004. This subsidy enables those care recipients to continue receiving the additional care and services for as long as they are living in state or territory government funded disability supported accommodation. The daily amount of flexible care subsidy payable for care provided in the form of innovative care in respect of these places is increased each year in accordance with increases to the consumer price index (CPI) as a measure of movements in the non-labour costs of providers and the decisions of Fair Work Australia as a measure of non-productivity based movements of the wage costs of providers.
This Determination revokes Aged Care (Amount of flexible care subsidy – Innovative Care Services) Determination 2009 (No. 1).
Further details of this Determination are attached.
The Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Consultation
The need for increased flexibility, choice and control in aged care for consumers has emerged from previous reviews of community aged care and the Australian Government’s consultations on the National Health and Hospitals Network.
Indexation of the subsidy uses well established formula based on the CPI as a measure of the movements in the non-labour costs of providers and the decisions of Fair Work Australia as a measure of non-productivity based movements of the wage costs of providers. As this is in accordance with policy upon which extensive consultation was undertaken, no specific consultation was undertaken with respect to this indexation.
Information about the amount of subsidy for consumer directed care and the increase in the amount of the subsidy for the provision of disability ageing in place services will be disseminated via print and electronic media to approved providers.
ATTACHMENT
NOTES ON DETERMINATION
Part 1 – Preliminary
Section 1 Name of Determination
The title of this Determination is the Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Innovative Care Services) Determination 2010 (No. 1).
Section 2 Commencement
The Determination commences on 1 July 2010.
Section 3 Revocation of previous determination
This section revokes the previous determination Aged Care (Amount of flexible care subsidy – Innovative Care Services) Determination 2009 (No. 1).
Part 2 – Care recipients receiving flexible care (other than consumer directed care)
Section 4 Application of Part
This section provides that this Part applies only to care recipients receiving innovative care services of a kind specified in section 15.24 of the Flexible Care Subsidy Principles 1997 (other than those specified in paragraph 15.24 (1) (ea)) provided by an approved provider listed in Column 1 of the table in Schedule 1.
Section 5 Amount of flexible care subsidy (other than for consumer directed care)
The section provides that the flexible care subsidy for a day for a care recipient is the amount mentioned in Column 2 of the table in Schedule 1.
Part 3 – Care recipients receiving flexible care in the form of consumer directed care
Section 6 Application of Part
This section provides that this Part applies to a care recipient receiving innovative care services of a kind specified in paragraph 15.24 (1) (ea) of the Flexible Care Subsidy Principles 1997. The services described in paragraph 15.24 (1) (ea) of the Principles are consumer directed care services.
Section 7 Amount of flexible care subsidy for consumer directed care
This section provides that the flexible care subsidy for a day for a care recipient receiving consumer directed care aligns with subsidy amounts payable under the following Determinations:
(a) for consumer directed low care – the amount of community care subsidy that would be payable in respect of a day if the care recipient received community care, worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Community Care Subsidy Amount) Determination 2010 (No. 1);
(b) for consumer directed high care – the amount of flexible care subsidy that would be payable in respect of a day if the care recipient received flexible care in the form of extended aged care at home, worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Extended Aged Care at Home) Determination 2010 (No. 1); and
(c) for consumer directed high care dementia – the amount of flexible care subsidy that would be payable in respect of a day if the care recipient received flexible care in the form of extended aged care at home - dementia, worked out in accordance with Aged Care (Amount of Flexible Care Subsidy – Extended Aged Care at Home - Dementia) Determination 2010 (No. 1).
Schedule 1 Amounts of flexible care subsidy
This schedule sets the amounts of flexible care subsidy payable to nine approved providers for the provision of disability ageing in place services.