5AA Radio Adelaide

E & OE

BYNER:

Under the changes announced in the budget the Government are going to put individuals at the centre and in control of their funds, just like the Disability Insurance Scheme. Of course a lot of people won’t know that yet because the Scheme is still in the small stages, early states of being rolled out. But just to give you an idea, how this is going to work let’s talk to the Aged Care Minister Mitch Fifield. Mitch thanks for joining us today.

FIFIELD:

Good to be with you Leon.

BYNER:

So how will you access this care package?

FIFIELD:

Well Leon your summary was good at the outset. At the moment we have very much a provider driven system where packages get allocated to a provider and an individual who is assessed as being eligible for a package has to run around and firstly, try and find a provider who has a package, and secondly, they’ve got to try and find a provider who has a package at the level to which they’re entitled. There are four levels of packages. So what we are going to do from February 2017 is attach the package to the individual, have them at the centre and in charge so that the individual can pick their service provider. And importantly if they’re not happy with the service they are getting from a provider, they can take their package and go somewhere else. And what we hope is that that really encourages providers to put their best put foot forward with the services they provide.

BYNER:

Mitch there is only one problem with this as I see it. There’s an election late next year, so this will be after the next election, people have got to wait.

FIFIELD:

Well, I would’ve dearly loved it to happen before then. But with a change of this nature there is some important planning that needs to happen. We’ve allocated $73 million to put in place the mechanisms for this. The reason why it’ll take a bit of time is that essentially we’re changing the funding relationship being one that the Government has with perhaps 500 or 1,000 service providers, to one that the Government will have with over 70,000 individuals. So it’s a new mechanism that will channel $7.4 billion over the next four years to individuals. So we do need to make some adjustments to make that possible.

BYNER:

Now, you’re assuming that the next Government will be yours. But if it’s not this could all change couldn’t it?

FIFIELD:

Well I’m very hopeful that the Opposition will support this. I caught up fairly recently with Shane Neumann who is the Shadow Minister for Ageing and I’ve got to say, he expressed a strong desire to put partisanship to one side in relation to aged care. Much as we’ve managed to do with the disability. So I would be optimistic that this would have support from both sides.

BYNER:

So in the meantime, if you need aged care assistance, what do you do? You’ve got to still try and find a provider who can offer it?

FIFIELD:

Well that is the system that we have at the moment. For probably the last 20 years we’ve had this weird and wonderful arrangement called the ACAR process. The Aged Care Approval Round each year where aged care providers pitch for home care packages and residential care places. It’s not satisfactory from the provider’s point of view because they’re not always sure why they were successful or why they weren’t successful. And it’s not satisfactory from the point of view of consumers because, as you say, they’ve got to go and hunt and try and find a provider with a package and one at the right level. So we at least now have a path forward, and a better way from February 2017.

BYNER:

So really anybody that’s accessing the services, nothing will change in the immediate future.

FIFIELD:

That’s right, there is however a change coming into place on the 1st of July that was instituted by the previous Government called Consumer Directed Care. Where for people who currently have home care packages, for the first time, they’ll get a monthly statement that says how much is in their package, what they’ve spent, how much is left, what the admin fees are. So that’s kind of a half-way house that provides transparency. But the problem is, it’s transparency without power. Because the ultimate sanction for a provider in the hands of an individual is to take their business elsewhere.

BYNER:

Alright, Mitch Fifield thank you for joining us. That’s a change that’s coming the year after next, passed the next election. I guess one of the observations that people make to me about changes and sometimes it’s the way it is that the Government of the day will announce something, but it’s actual implementation and outcome won’t occur until there is another election when they or their opposites will be there.