Residential Care Subsidy Amendment Principles 2001 (No. 1)
I, BRONWYN KATHLEEN BISHOP, Minister for Aged Care, make these Principles under subsection 96-1 (1) of the Aged Care Act 1997.
Dated 24 May 2001
BRONWYN BISHOP
Minister for Aged Care
1 Name of Principles
These Principles are the Residential Care Subsidy Amendment Principles 2001 (No. 1).
2 Commencement
These Principles are taken to have commenced on 1 January 2001.
3 Amendment of Residential Care Subsidy Principles 1997
Schedule 1 amends the Residential Care Subsidy Principles 1997.
Schedule 1 Amendment
(section 3)
[1] Section 21.34
substitute
21.34 Determination — general
(1) Subject to section 21.34A, the Secretary may make a determination for a residential care service if the service scores 40 or more points under the scoring system set out in the following table:
Item | Criterion | Points |
1 | Location: |
|
| (a) very remote location | 60 |
| (b) remote location | 50 |
| (c) moderately accessible location | 40 |
| (d) accessible location | 30 |
| (e) highly accessible location | 0 |
2 | Places: |
|
| (a) less than 20 | 30 |
| (b) more than 19 but less than 30 | 20 |
| (c) more than 29 but less than 45 | 10 |
3 | More than 50% of care recipients are people with special needs (other than people who are people with special needs only because they live in rural or remote areas or they are financially or socially disadvantaged) | 10 |
(2) For this section:
(a) ARIA score, in relation to a location, means the score given to that location under the document titled ‘Viability Funding — ARIA scores for locations as at 30 July 1999’, published by the Department of Health and Aged Care;
(b) ARIA means the ‘Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA)’, Occasional Papers Series No. 6, prepared by the Department of Health and Aged Care and the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems, University of Adelaide, and published in March 1999 by the Department of Health and Aged Care;
(c) very remote location means a location that has an ARIA score of more than 9.08, but not more than 12;
(d) remote location means a location that has an ARIA score of more than 5.8, but not more than 9.08;
(e) moderately accessible location means a location that has an ARIA score of more than 3.51, but not more than 5.8;
(f) accessible location means a location that has an ARIA score of more than 1.84, but not more than 3.51;
(g) highly accessible location means a location that has an ARIA score of not more than 1.84.
21.34A Determination — particular residential care services
(1) This section applies to a residential care service if:
(a) immediately before the day on which the Residential Care Subsidy Amendment Principles 2001 (No. 1) are notified in the Gazette:
(i) the service was the subject of a determination in force under subsection 44-29 (2) of the Act on the basis of meeting the requirements of the 60-point viability scheme; or
(ii) an application had been made to the Secretary for a determination under subsection 44-29 (2) of the Act in respect of the service on the basis of the service meeting the requirements of the 60-point viability scheme, but no decision had been made in relation to the application; and
(b) on or after 1 January 2001:
(i) the service is not able to meet the requirements of the 40‑point viability scheme; or
(ii) the service is able to meet the requirements of the 40‑point viability scheme, but the amount of viability supplement that would be payable under that scheme to the approved provider for the care recipients for whom the approved provider provided residential care through the service during a payment period after that date would be less than the amount of viability supplement that was, or would have been, payable to the approved provider under the 60-point viability scheme.
(2) For subsection (1):
40-point viability scheme, in relation to a residential care service, means the scheme under section 21.34 of these Principles under which the service is required to score 40 or more points under the scoring system set out in that section in order for the Secretary to be able to make a determination for the service under subsection 44‑29 (2) of the Act.
60-point viability scheme, in relation to a residential care service, means the scheme under section 21.34 of these Principles, as in force immediately before 1 January 2001, under which the service was required to score 60 or more points under the scoring system set out in that section in order for the Secretary to be able to make a determination for the service under subsection 44-29 (2) of the Act.
(3) The Secretary may make a determination for the residential care service if the service scores 60 or more points under the scoring system set out in the following table:
Item | Criterion | Points |
1 | Location: |
|
| (a) remote zone | 40 |
| (b) other rural area | 30 |
| (c) small rural centre | 20 |
| (d) large rural centre | 10 |
2 | Beds: |
|
| (a) less than 30 | 20 |
| (b) less than 16 | 30 |
3 | Service not co-located with another service and unable to co-locate | 20 |
4 | Concessional or assisted residents: |
|
| (a) over 70% | 20 |
| (b) 50% to 70% | 10 |
5 | Caters largely for special groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups | 10 |
(4) For subsection (3):
(a) a location of a particular kind is a statistical local area of that kind defined in ‘Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area Classification’, 1991 Census Edition, published by the Australian Government Publishing Service, November 1994;
(b) a service is taken to be unable to co-locate with another service if it is:
(i) not on the same site as, or on an adjoining site to, another residential care or multi-purpose service; or
(ii) on the same site as, or an adjoining site to another residential care or multi-purpose service, but the total of the residential places and non-acute beds on the same or adjacent sites is less than 45; or
(iii) more than 25 kilometres from the nearest residential care service; or
(iv) not more than 25 kilometres from the nearest residential care service, but the total number of places in both services is:
(A) for a service in a remote zone — less than 30 beds; or
(B) for a service not in a remote zone — less than 16 beds;
(c) multi-purpose service has the meaning given by section 15.3 of the Flexible Care Subsidy Principles 1997;
(d) points may be scored under only 1 paragraph in an item that has paragraphs.