Beth Hourigan overviews a new registration system
If Government funded service providers (those facilities that get a government subsidy for their approved residents) are directly approached by people seeking aged care services, both residential and in-home services, they are now required to refer new clients to the government’s My Aged Care website for registration.
It appears that is an additional bureaucratic step for filtering access to services and funding for aged care clients.
Although service providers are being encouraged to action these referrals to ensure clients can access services quickly, under the current mountain of paperwork I can’t see how this extra step is going to assist efficiency (or the client or the service provider).
Service providers are being asked to help clients with the My Aged Care registration process by:
- recording client details in an inbound referral form (accessed from My Aged Care) that is sent to the My Aged Care contact centre
- calling the My Aged Care contact centre with the person, or
- sending a fax with information about the person.
When the referral is received by the My Aged Care contact centre staff they will:
- create a client record
- ask a series of questions to understand the client’s needs and then
- send referrals for assessment and/or service(s)
The client will then be able to choose to return to the original service provider who helped them with the registration, or go elsewhere to another service provider; hardly an incentive for the original referring facility or service provider I think. All this happens at the same time as filling in Centrelink’s 34 page Assets and Income Assessment Form! And they say this is will improve the former system – for who, and how????
It appears to me that this is just another filter, and reading the CHSP programme manual I just can’t see how this central “register” is actually going to help the client.
Sure we’ve been assured that in cases where urgent care is required, services may be provided before a client is registered, and in these circumstances providers are instructed to “help” the client register as soon as practical so their broader needs can be considered. I ask this…………..what are the “broader” needs being referred to here?
Even though the government have set up a special portal for all this to happen within, it’s already had “technical” problems, and quite frankly, I’m predicting that this is not going to end well, for either the client, service providers or the staff at the My Aged Care Centre Staff.
Beth Hourigan is the Director and Accommodation Specialist for Aged Care Financial Services and Adviser Network. She has worked in aged care for about 15 years after navigating the aged care maze with her own Mother, Nancy. Nancy lived well in aged care for 9 years; and Beth turned her personal experience into a professional passion.
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