The new Aged Care Bill has finally arrived

After much consultation and delay the new Bill has been introduced to Parliament today. You can find the Bill here.

At first glance it appears there are a number of important concessions for providers in the draft.

The introduction of the Bill to Parliament follows the release of the Exposure Draft of the Aged Care Bill on 14 December 2023, and the final report from the Aged Care Taskforce on 12 March 2024.  The Government's full response to the Taskforce is here.

We are currently reviewing the 540 plus pages of the Bill in detail and will be hosting webinars for Thomson Geer clients in the coming weeks to discuss its implications for providers and their governing bodies.

At this stage however we have set out some of the items that will be of most interest to providers. Our more detailed analysis and comparison with the Exposure Draft will follow shortly.

Key Items

While we are still digesting the draft; some of the key items we want to highlight now are:

• the removal of criminal penalties for directors
• statutory duties:
  • provider level - scope of statutory duties imposed have been refined
  • responsible person level - revised to exclude any liability attaching to responsible persons at the facility level;
• the introduction of the 'support at home' program, encouraging older Australians to stay at home for longer to commence 1 July 2025;
• changes flowing from the government response to the Aged Care Taskforce:
  • Increasing the maximum room price to $750,000 and indexing over time;
  • Reintroduction of RAD retentions set at 2% for a maximum of 5 years;
  • Indexation of DAPs;
  • Further work to look at phasing out RADs by 2035;
  • Removal of the current MTCF
  • Government to pay all care costs
  • New means-tested Non-Clinical Care Contribution to cover non-clinical care costs such as bathing, mobility assistance and provision of lifestyle activities
  • Introduction of a lifetime cap on Non-Clinical Care Contribution
• The introduction of the no worse off principle to grandfather those in care before 1 July 2025
• A revised system for substitute decision making in aged care
• A new statutory Complaints Commissioner that will operate independently from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

At this stage none of the draft Rules (which are intended to replace the current Principles) have been published.

Timing

Debate on the bill has been adjourned to the next sitting of parliament and is likely to be followed by a senate inquiry. Based on available parliamentary calendars, the earliest the Bill is likely to be next debated is 8 October.  

Thomson Geer support for providers

Thomson Geer is committed to helping providers transition to the new arrangements in an efficient and economical way. To this end we have developed a list of services and products that provide fixed price solutions to assist providers transition to the new Aged Care Act and Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

Our full suite of transition services will be released over the coming days. It will include a number of fixed price services for providers including a transition program for providers to follow that will identify the items providers will need to address to comply with the requirements of the new act and solutions to address those items.

‍