Funding and financing of aged care

This is a submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, made on behalf of consumers. It addresses part 12 of the submissions by Peter Gray QC on 4 March 2020.

There should be an evidence-based funding classification model for residential care, based on independent assessment. The form of the model should be based on expert advice, and may not necessarily be a case-mix model. The reliability of the independent assessments should be validated.

Loadings for higher costs in rural, regional and remote areas should be evidence-based. To give regional providers equal profitability to metropolitan, viability supplement payments in 17-18 may have needed to increase by about $120m.

Closure rates have been high, and quality sometimes poor, in very remote areas. Funding arrangements designed to suit local needs are needed.

Acquittal of care funding would be an unfortunate reversion to the litigious CAM system.