If a private members’ bill introduced by the federal member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, is passed, it will stop providers from charging any more than 25% of Level 1 and 2 Home Care Packages on administration fees, and no more than 20% for Level 3 and 4 packages.
“The current system is not working. Senior Australians are not getting the care they really need to stay at home,” said Sharkie.
“So-called competition is not keeping prices down, and some older Australians are paying more than 30% and even up to half their packages in administration fees, or the costs are hidden in inflated hourly rates.
“The government needs to stop the rorting and introduce pricing caps,” Sharkie said.
Sharkie was prompted to draft the legislation after surveying more than 1,200 residents aged 75 years or older in her electorate about their home care package experiences.
The results are “staggering,” Sharkie said.
“Many of those surveyed reported paying administration and management fees of up to 48% or 50%, including on packages that are very minimal.
“I cannot fathom how such low value, static packages can continue to incur such ridiculously high administration and management fees. It’s outrageous and it needs to be stopped.
“My Bill will cap fees and it will make more funding available for actual care in the home.”
If passed, the Bill will also ban exit fees when consumers wish to change home care providers.
Another aspect of the Bill is that home care providers will be required to offer potential clients a comparative fee schedule for at least five approved providers in their area. If there are fewer than five providers in the region, the schedule must show fees for all approved providers in the area.
Tell us about your home care experiences. Are you paying high admin fees? Do exit fees stop you from switching providers?
I find that Ms Sharkie is totally out of touch with the real world as far as providers go. Ms Sharkie obviously hasn’t done her home work in talking to providers enquiring as to how they conduct their business. What she doesn’t know is that the amount of extra burden that is continually being placed on providers has to be costed accordingly because the Government does not provide the extra workforce to do it, would be nice if they would. Providers are finding that they must employ more people to keep up with the burden. A good example of this is the new Improved Payments Arrangement recently imposed, this has increased the providers workload immensely. It is also questionable as to how Ms Sharkie has actually arrived at her percentages and those isolated for the different packages. At the moment the accepted norm is somewhere between 28 to 30 percent for package management and care management, two titled charges imposed by the Government. It is quite obvious that Ms Sharkie has only spoken to recipients of a home care package and not a provider, I would be quite happy to set her straight, she is so far out of touch with the real world it is not funny.
My husband was granted a Level 3 package in September and when I asked for an extra respite day for him to attend, I was told there wasn’t enough money to cover it. In package two my husband has a carer for three hours a week plus a cleaning lady for one and a half hours a fortnight plus an outing to a respite centre from 9.30 pickup time to 2.20 drop off time back at home.
My question is where has the extra money gone? He is also charged $1.00 per kilometre for the staff to drive to and fro from home and respite. I would love to change providers bunt the $400.00 exit fee turns me off.
If I speak to a dementia specialist, I am charged for that also. I will be placing my husband into respite, for which I will be paying for myself in a couple of weeks. The system, to me, is nothing but a wrought and more accountability needs to be taken. From what I have seen and heard, any Tom dick or Harry could start his own business up in this field. NOT good enough!!!