Home Care Package funding update July 2020
What to do once you’ve received your Home Care Package assignment letter?
In case you have not heard, Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently announced an additional 6,100 (approx.) new Home Care Packages (HCP) to be made available to Australians immediately.
You can view the press conference by clicking below. The (16min) mark is where the announcement is made.
Have you had an aged care assessment and received a letter from the government stating that you have been approved to receive a home care package? Are you waiting for a package to be assigned to you? (ie you are on the national home care package queue)?
The next step in this process is that you will receive a 2nd letter advising you that a “Home Care Package” has now been assigned to you and ready for you to talk to providers about your care needs (the letter will provide you with a referral code).
If you don’t receive a letter from My Aged Care over the next few weeks, don’t be concerned.
It could simply mean that you have not yet progressed to the top of the national queue.
However, if you are lucky enough to be assigned your Home Care Package in this new allocation of packages there are a few important things for you to remember…
1. The first thing is to know your rights as an Aged Care Consumer.
The government made an update to these in July of 2019. For your convenience, we’ve provided the following link to the Charter of Aged Care Rights booklet where you can learn all about your rights as a home care package recipient:
2. The next important thing for you to be aware of is…
This includes how services are delivered and which organisation you choose to provide them.
This added level of flexibility is known as Consumer Directed Care or CDC for short.
With CDC, the power is now in your hands when it comes to your (or your loved one’s) government home care package funding.
The biggest benefits of CDC include:
- You can now choose who will provide your care
- You can change providers if you aren’t happy with the care you are receiving
- You have control and visibility over yours, or your loved one’s, care including transparency into the costs of your care.
3. So, what’s next and how do you select the right provider?
To help you best prepare for this decision, this document “Questions to ask when looking for a Home Care Package provider” outlines topics to ask a Home Care provider to assist you in making a decision as to which provider would suit you best. These are often questions you may not have thought of when choosing a care provider.
Key topics that are covered in the document include:
- Care Services – Consistency and availability of care, when you want it, how you want it.
- Costs – Questions about your package funds
- Quality – How can you be assured that the services that you receive exceed quality standards?
Empowering yourself with this knowledge will ensure the care needs of yourself or your loved one are well understood and you can achieve the best home care experience available to you.
If you have any questions about the information detailed here please do not hesitate to contact your nearest office for more information.
