Aged Care Pricing Commissioner

Let’s look at some of the highlights in the 2018-19 Annual Report from the Aged Care Pricing Commissioner.

The Commissioner’s main role is to approve Refundable Accommodation Deposits (RADs) of over $550,000 for residential aged care rooms.

Firstly, in 2018-19, the Commissioner approved a total of 411 applications to charge a RAD over $550,000. These applications came from 155 residential aged care homes, and is the equivalent of 8,117 rooms approved.

Over the last 4 years we have seen a steady increase in the number of rooms in the sector priced over $550,000. Last year we reached the 17 per cent mark. So, 17 per cent of all rooms in residential aged care in Australia are approved to charge a RAD of over $550,000.

If we take a closer look at these rooms, we see that there is an increasing number that are more than 40km from the CBD of a capital city.

And if we look at it another way, we can see that of the applications approved in 2018-19, 68 per cent of the rooms were in existing residential aged care homes, with the remainder in new homes.

68 per cent of these rooms were in homes managed by for-profit providers, and the remaining 32 per cent were in homes managed by not-for-profit providers.

The applications submitted came from 80 service providers. This number is less than the previous year. And may reflect provider consolidation across the sector.

In the last financial year, the Commissioner visited 84 residential aged care homes across all states and territories. Except for Darwin. That’s on the cards for next year.

So, what’s coming up for our office in the next financial year?

We plan to document our shared values; develop a corporate strategy to guide our work over the next 3 years; and we plan to streamline our processes, as part of our ongoing commitment to improve service delivery.

If you are interested in reading the full report, contact our office on 1300 550 970 to request a printed copy. Or, download a copy from our website, www.acpc.gov.au