EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Approval of Care Recipients Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1)
The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the regulation and Commonwealth funding of aged care services.
Subsection 96-1(1) of the Act provides for the Minister to make Principles providing for various matters required or permitted by a Part or section of the Act.
Among the Principles made under s 96-1(1) are the Approval of Care Recipients Principles 1997 (the Approval of Care Recipients Principles).
The purpose of the Approval of Care Recipients Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1)
(the Amending Principles) is to define high level of residential care and low level of residential care based on the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) classifications and prevent an approval lapsing in circumstances where a resident enters another care service within 28 days of leaving a care service.
Other amendments have been included to properly match the terms ‘high level of residential care’ and ‘low level of residential care’ defined in the Act. These amendments have inserted the word ‘residential’ where these terms have been used in the Approval of Care Recipient Principles. These amendments do not change the substance or operation of the provisions being amended.
Background and purpose
In the 2004 Budget, measures were announced to implement a new funding model for residential aged care with a reduced number of funding categories for personal care. The funding model is also designed to better target funding towards the care of care recipients with challenging behaviours related to dementia and complex nursing and health care needs including palliative care.
The ACFI has been designed to reduce the amount of documentation and record-keeping which aged care staff generate and maintain in order to justify the funding classification for each care recipient.
The ACFI reduces the number of questions used to determine funding levels in residential aged care and provides basic subsidy payments for care recipients with complex health care needs, including palliative care, and for care recipients who have mental or behavioural conditions, including dementia. The ACFI classification is based on 12 questions each having four ratings (A, B, C or D).
Operation
The Amending Principles will commence on the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Aged Care Amendment (Residential Care) Act 2007.
The Amending Principles are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Consultation
The Department of Health and Ageing has worked closely with a Reference Group to advise on the development of the new funding model. Members of this reference group include peak industry bodies, consumer bodies, the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency and the Australian Nursing Federation.
Regulation Impact Statement
The Office of Regulation has advised that no Regulation Impact Statement is required (RIS ID 8112).
Details of the Amending Principles are set out in Attachment A.
ATTACHMENT A
Details of the Approval of Care Recipients Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1).
Section 1 states that the name of the Amending Principles is the Approval of Care Recipients Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1).
Section 2 states that the Amending Principles commence on the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Aged Care Amendment (Residential Care) Act 2007.
Section 3 states that Schedule 1 amends the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
Schedule 1 Amendments
Item 1
This item inserts a new definition into section 5.3. This is a definition of lapsing period which is defined as the period that applies to the person’s approval under subsection 23-3(1) of the Act. This has been done to cover both of the situations covered by subsection 23-3(1) of the Act. This definition replaces subsection 5.9(4) which is being omitted (see Item 8).
Item 2
This item substitutes the note to section 5.3, referring to definitions of certain expressions in the Dictionary in Schedule 1 to the Act. The new note contains references to three new terms used in the Approval of Care Recipients Principles that are now defined in the Act. High level of residential care and low level of residential care are two of the new terms inserted. These definitions are based on ACFI classifications, which are set out in the Classification Amendment Principles 2008 (No. 1). The other new term is Secretary which has been included as an important term which is used within the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
Item 3
This item omits “the low level of care; and” and inserts “a low level of residential care; and” in paragraph 5.6(1)(b) of the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
Item 4
This item omits “the low level of care.” and inserts “a low level of residential care.” in paragraph 5.7A(c) of the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
Item 5
This item omits “of care” and inserts “of residential care” in subsection 5.9 (1) of the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
Item 6
This item substitutes subsection 5.9(2) of the Approval of Care Recipients Principles. The provision now contains the word “residential” before the word “care”, the first and second times that word appears, and the third word “care” is removed from before “classification level”.
Item 7
This item omits “entry period” and inserts “lapsing period” to paragraph 5.9(3)(a) of the Approval of Care Recipients Principles. This wording has been changed to align with the definition of “lapsing period” inserted into section 5.3 by Item 1. The definition of “entry period” in subsection 5.9(4) is omitted by Item 8 and therefore is no longer applicable.
Item 8
This item omits subsection 5.9(4). This removes the definition of “entry period” as the period referred to in paragraph 23-3(1)(b) of the Act is not an entry period.
Item 9
Part 5 Lapsing of approval
This item substitutes sections 5.12, 5.13 and 5.14.
Section 5.12 Purpose of Part (Act s 23-3)
Section 5.12 has been reworded to give a clearer explanation of the purpose of Part 5, that being the specification of the entry period for flexible care in the form of transition care and the circumstances where an approval may lapse.
Section 5.13 Entry period – flexible care in the form of transition care
Section 5.13 has been amended to remove paragraph 5.13(a) related to the lapsing of an approval 12 months after the approval was given as paragraph 5.13(a) repeated the content of paragraph 23-3(1)(b) of the Act. A note has been added to refer to paragraph 23-3(1)(b) of the Act rather than keeping paragraph 5.13(a) as a substantive provision in the Approval of Care Recipients Principles.
The new s 5.13 is based upon the former paragraph 5.13(b), and now includes a specific reference to the entry period for flexible care in the form of transition care for the purposes of paragraph 23-3(1)(a) of the Act.
Section 5.14 Circumstances
New subsection 5.14(1) specifies, for the purposes of s 23-3(3) of the Act, the circumstances where specified types of approvals of persons will lapse. An approval of a person as a recipient of residential care, respite care provided as residential care, or flexible care in the form of transition care, lapses in circumstances where the person is not provided, for a period of at least 1 day after the lapsing period for the approval ends, with the care to which the approval relates.
New subsection 5.14(2) specifies that, in circumstances where a care recipient enters a residential care service within the period of 28 days after the day they ceased to be provided with residential care (other than because the care recipient is on leave) any day within that period is to be disregarded for reckoning the period referred to in subsection 5.14(1).
A note has also been added to this section referring to subsection 23-3(4) of the Act for circumstances related to a person who is on leave from a residential care service.