SaH has issues, but providers have solutions

Following the surprise announcement that the new Aged Care Act has been delayed to 1 November, Lorraine Poulos and Associates managing director Lorraine Poulos led a collaborative fishbowl session, encouraging providers to think about how they might address the still looming challenges of Support at Home.

At Ageing Australia’s Victoria state conference, discussions were lighter, with most attendees feeling a sense of relief that they had another four months to implement any solutions raised during the day 2 fishbowl session they thought would be useful.

Tables were given a particular challenge to find solutions for, such as the workload of care partners and billable hours, managing the care minute funding pool, pricing for transport, associate providers and third-party arrangements, software systems, and staff awareness and training.

Third party arrangements and licensing

Third party arrangements dominated discussions, with attendees putting forward the issues about:

• price transparency
• trying to reduce the volume of third parties that providers work with
• the heavy compliance involved in maintaining those third-party arrangements while balancing choice and control for clients
• price setting and unit prices, given the large variance between providers and the lack of transparency on those prices between providers
• managing time and attendance
• purchase orders and evidence of shift notes, with the example of improving efficiency by reducing data entry on multiple systems.

One solution suggested was to reduce the reliance on third parties overall and deliver more services in-house or work more with preferred partners that can collaboratively work on pricing and APIs.

Software systems and claiming under SaH

Those who discussed software systems and claiming under SaH noted it was something providers have little influence over and highlighted that the specifications of technical requirements are not yet available, making it difficult to plan ahead.

The need for providers to organise an appointment with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to test IT systems partnered with the complexity of having grandfathered, transitioning and new entrant clients all needing to be managed in the software system has also contributed to providers feeling concerned that Services Australia won’t be able to process claims properly. This sense of unease was heightened further with the news that the new start day of the Act comes in the middle of a financial quarter, not the beginning of it.

Ultimately though, attendees said providers needed to trust that their software vendors are doing all they can to be ready and it will be up to providers to conduct ongoing check-ins with vendors to mitigate any concerns.

Training, staff awareness and workloads

A key concern providers have on staff awareness centres on whether employees properly understand the legislative and regulatory changes, with the solution offered being relatively straight – regular team meetings.

There were also suggestions of creating easy-to-read or translated documentation for culturally and linguistically diverse staff, as well as regularly providing training sessions.

Meanwhile, AI automation was a popular topic amongst those tasked with discussing workloads for care partners – as it can improve efficiency and reduce the workload.

Clear communication with consumers or participants about what a care partner can and can’t do within the constraints of that care management was also named as an important thing to be recognised, with Ms Poulos saying AI is crucial to boosting efficiency and that the sector needs to “get with the program.”

Care management funding pool

One of the core issues effecting care management funding pools is regular monitoring for aged care recipients who may not need a huge amount of care management – or don’t want it – but still need to be monitored so providers can notice escalation or complications of symptoms. Meanwhile, others have high care needs and are part of the same funding pool.

Care management is going to have to be a lot more efficient to fit into the restricted funding available attendees agreed, and providers will ultimately need to prioritise what services are most important and where spending is needed most.

Early intervention and the need to have clients look elsewhere for social support were also listed as possible solutions, and Ms Poulos urged providers to get clients reassessed as needing allied health counselling if they need it.

“Go and start monitoring that because that is not a function of a care partner in the sense of Support at Home,” said Ms Poulos.

“Use the system legally to get the services that your consumers want.”

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