Older Australians who access home care services will now be able to exercise greater choice and control with the commencement of new funding arrangements.
The new home care funding arrangements, Increasing Choice in Home Care, which was launched earlier this week, Monday 27 February, by Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health, the Hon Ken Wyatt, will mean that individual consumers can choose their preferred service provider and more easily change service provider.
Peak body for the Catholic hospital and aged care network, Catholic Health Australia (CHA) has been supportive of these reforms having worked closely with government and other aged care stakeholders towards implementing the changes.
CHA CEO, Suzanne Greenwood, said the launch marks a significant step in the right direction for aged care in Australia, with older Australians now afforded the opportunity to better influence the nature and quality of home care services.
“Consumer choice is pivotal to the improvement of any product or service, whether an aged care service or otherwise,” Mrs Greenwood said.
“The launch of increasing choice in home care represents a significant win for both consumers and providers,” she said.
“It means older Australians will be empowered to choose the service they consider to be of better quality or more suitable to their needs, and home care service providers have an additional incentive to be recognised for offering quality services that are responsive to consumer needs and preferences.”
In a statement released this week, CHA said that increasing Choice in Home Care is an important step forward towards creating a sustainable aged care service industry based on consumer choice and control, as envisaged in the Aged Care Roadmap for the reform of aged care services.
The Roadmap envisages an integrated residential and home care aged care system based on a single independent care needs and means assessment process across all aged care.
This determines each consumer’s eligibility for aged care services and financial assistance, consumer choice of provider, and control over how the financial assistance is used including where each consumer chooses to live while receiving care.
“While there is much more work to be done, CHA commends the Turnbull Government for progressing these important reforms, integral to transforming the aged care sector into a fairer, safer, and more consumer-driven system,” concluded Mrs Greenwood.