Yesterday, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, outlined a revised package of aged-care funding measures. Overall, this revision to the ACFI changes represents the hard work and lobbying of many Providers, Members of Parliament and Industry bodies including ACSA, LASA, ACIA and the Aged Care Guild and is absolutely Remarkable news for residents comprehensively and appropriately assessed with complex health and pain management needs. “The revised package provides more certainty for the sector and will deliver sustainable expenditure growth over the short term while paving the way for longer-term reforms,” according to Minister Wyatt.
The details of this announcement can be found here or our easy to understand summary can be found here:
The Department announced today that the new ACFI User Guide and appraisal documents will be updated and made available shortly, so please remember to adjust all of your internal ACFI documentation and forms as required and to also update budgets/forecasts for the indexation pauses for the 2018 & 2019 Financial years.
THE IMPACT
Based on the original changes proposed earlier in the year and a sample of approximately 20,000 beds, we estimated that the full impact of both the July and January changes, excluding the impact of indexation, would be a reduction of funding to the average facility of -11.3%. This Impact Report can be found here.
Using the same technique but considering these revisions, we now estimate the impact on the average facility will be -7.2%.
Based on our sample data, under the original proposed changes it would have been very difficult to maintain an H in CHC. While not all claiming profiles will maintain an H or maintain an M, the % of cases where it would not be maintained has been reduced:
OUR VIEW
We welcome these changes and any stringent validation process that ensures older Australians in care receive the care, dignity, and quality of life they deserve! With ACFI funding being in the spotlight especially now as we work with Government towards a more sustainable funding model we can expect, and are definitely already seeing, far more stringent validation procedures. Our approach to ACFI is that we are passionate clinicians first and ACFI experts second. All ACFI claims should be identified through comprehensive clinical assessment to identify a resident’s assessed care needs which should then be reflected in the care being delivered. By overlaying the ACFI questions over the comprehensive clinical assessment you can confidently achieve your entitled ACFI funding. So, provided your claims are based on a resident’s assessed care needs and align to the care being delivered, then Validation should not present any issues for you.
