How the world of homecare is changing for seniors
In the 2015-16 Federal Budget, the Australian Government announced significant reforms to home care services, to help improve the lives of many older Australians. And the first stage is coming into effect this year, on the 27th of February.
The changes will allow consumers to choose the provider that is best suited to them, and direct funding to that provider, in theory creating a fairer and more flexible way of distributing packages based on needs and circumstances.
We had a chat with Dr Peter Hanley, Managing Director of CarePilot, to help explain the changes and what they mean to seniors receiving homecare.
At a glance these changes look to be a win for retirees who are considering government funded home care. In what do the changes address deficiencies in the current system?
I think at a very high level the government has taken the view that the previous approach has not provided the breadth of choice for consumers and allowed them to exercise control over the sorts of services they get and who provides them.
And also, that the system has been inefficient. By which I mean the dollars that they are putting to work aren’t buying as much support as they feel that they could. The change that’s coming up in February is a further step in a set of reforms that are aimed at addressing those issues by giving consumers more choice and locking that into the obligations of service providers so that they must allow their consumers or clients to exercise more choice.
The change in February takes the reforms one step further by opening the system up to real competition. This will put more pressure on service providers to genuinely deliver on that promise.
What are the main ways these reforms will make the aged care system in Australia more efficient and what are the benefits of this?
The government has decided to increase the share of funding that is going to home care relative to residential care and I think that’s a good thing for consumers as well. People would rather stay at home, and they’re generally better off if they stay at home, close to the things that they’re familiar with and give them meaning and purpose in life and family and support networks. That’s a good thing as long as it’s sustainable, and the government has recognised that, but in doing so, they’ve also had to address the deficiencies and limitations of the previous system.
One other point worth calling out is that, while everyone can see that more choice is a good thing, for some it can actually make the process even more daunting: they’ve now got even more options they need to consider; are they really up for evaluating them all? We find that is a common situation, and one of the services that we offer at CarePilot is helping people go through the process of registering with My Aged Care, the ACAT assessment and Centrelink process, approach providers, weigh up their options and choose a service provider that’s the best fit. I think we’ll see that service being even more in demand as there are more options that families need to work their way through.
Is there anything about these changes retirees should be concerned about?
The challenge is that the process of accessing a package is not something that you do on a regular basis. The first time you go through it as a family it’s all new, it’s all different and families certainly benefit from having our team of experts guide them through. We’ve done it many times – drawing on our experience in how to optimise the outcome is very helpful for families.
The decision is always theirs but we see our responsibility as opening up options that they might not have thought of and helping them to make an as informed decision as possible. Whether they choose CarePilot as the manager of their package because of the better value they see in our service, or they choose another provider, our priority is to ensure they’re making an informed decision.
What advice would you give seniors who are looking to identify and evaluate their options?
As fees come down, and more services are available from packages then more of those people who might’ve considered packages to be of marginal value will find it may be attractive for them.
Also, it is important to recognise that it is a necessarily rationed process - as any government service is - there are only so many dollars to go around, and that ultimately translates to there being a waiting list because there are fewer places than there is demand for them, so people will have to wait.
Part of the change in February is there will be a central waiting list rather than waiting lists at the level of individual providers. That is certainly a step forward, but there will still be waiting lists. So, it makes sense for people to get themselves into the process and moving along the waiting list in anticipation of needing it at some point in the future, even if they feel they are not quite ready yet.
Dr Peter Hanley is the Managing Director of CarePilot, a group of healthcare professionals and innovators offering a safer, smarter and simpler way for families to find, fund and manage their care at home. For more information, visit their website here.
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