📋 Tender Overview
The Albanese Labor Government introduced legislation today to deliver our commitments to fix the crisis in aged care and usher in a new funding model for residential aged care.The Aged Care Amendment Implementing Care Reform Bill 2022 will require a qualified registered nurse to be on site in every residential aged care home 24 hours a day seven days a week ensuring older Australians living in residential aged care receive immediate care when needed.The former Morrison Government ignored the Royal Commissions recommendation that nursing homes should have a RN on site 247.We are also delivering on our election commitment to improve transparency in the aged care system with the Bill introducing measures to monitor the costs associated with aged care placing greater responsibility on providers to be transparent and fair.This will see the publication of more information about providers operations including what they are spending money on.The legislation also delivers on our election commitment to stop the rorting of Home Care fees by placing a cap on how much can be charged in administration and management fees.This means home care users can be confident their money is going directly to care not the bottom line of providers.Also introduced today the Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment Royal Commission Response Bill 2022 contains nine measures to implement urgent reforms to the aged care system and responds to 17 recommendations of the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.The Royal Commission Response Bill provides the legislative framework for the new AN-ACC funding model for residential aged care homes which will replace the outdated Aged Care Funding Instrument in October 2022.This framework will offer more equitable funding better matched to providers costs in delivering the care residents need.It also extends the functions of the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority which will lead to better price-setting for aged care homes.Other measures enshrine transparency and accountability of approved providers and improve quality of care and safety for older Australians receiving aged care services.This includes the Star Ratings System which will see the Department of Health and Aged Care publish a comparison rating for all residential aged care services by the end of 2022 an extension of the Serious Incident Response Scheme to all in home care providers from 1 December 2022 meaning increased protection for older Australians from preventable incidents abuse and neglect and a new Code of Conduct for approved providers their workforce and governing persons.
