What’s this about?
The most recent round of Aged Care reforms took effect on 27th February 2017. Under this wave of reform, funding for Home Care now follows the consumer and better supports the Consumer Directed Care (CDC) model for Aged Care. Effectively what it means is that Aged Care consumers now have a greater say in who they will engage to deliver their Home Care without being encumbered by geographical boundaries. It also means organisations who want to provide Aged Care Services no longer have to provide the full suite of services (i.e. Home Care, Residential Care and Flexible Care). They can now apply to the Federal government to be an approved provider of one or more of these. Medical HQ is exploring the possibility of becoming an Approved Provider of Home Care under the Aged Care Act 1997.
Why are we doing this?
Our records show we have well over 2000 patients who are over 65 years of age and living at home and we are hearing many of them tell us they are not sure what their options are or what to do or where to go when their personal circumstances suddenly change and they need help. At the moment, the extent to which we can assist them in this area is limited to referring them to My Aged Care for an ACAT assessment.
With the Aged Care reforms that took effect on 27th February 2017, we think there is now an opportunity for Medical HQ to be able to do more to support this group of patients. We are exploring the idea of adding Home Care Support to compliment the suite of GP medical services and allied health services we already provide. Ideally we would like to position ourselves as a clinic whose holistic approach to patient care promotes good health and wellbeing and allows people to be able to continue living independently, safely and well in their own home for as long as they choose.
