You may have seen in the news that there has been a change to aged care funding. Rest assured though that care will not be affected by this change.
What’s the change?
The new funding model has had a name change to “Australian National Aged Care Classification” or AN-ACC for short. This change stems from the recent Royal Commission into aged care. The main impact is to aged care providers and the funding they receive. They model is intended to help aged care homes meet the costs of delivering care to residents.
If you have someone currently in care:
The move to the new funding mode will not affect the care received or their current living arrangements.
New residents:
Once assessed and moved in, an independent assessor will attend the facility and meet with the resident and facility staff. The results of this assessment will be used to provide you with an AN-ACC “class”. This class will decide part of the funding the aged care home receives to meet the resident’s daily care needs.
What is the new AN-ACC class system and what are “care minutes”?
The new AN-ACC class has 13 levels, depending on the residents needs/requirements. Each of the class has its own care minutes target to support a person’s needs. These can range from 135 minutes (including 32 minutes with a RN) for those who are more independent and require less care; up to 284 minutes (including 53 minutes with an RN) for those who need the most care.
Overall:
This is just a change to the way providers receive funding to meet resident needs. It will not affect the care received or current aged care living arrangements. The changes mean residents get more care time from registered nurses, enrolled nurses and PCA’s. No action is required on your part or on behalf of a current resident. Once an assessment is complete, the class can be viewed on the My Aged Care platform.
As always, I am only an email or a phone call away and always happy to help. If you know of anyone who may be starting to investigate aged care options, I would love it if you passed on my details so I can help them through the process.