AN-ACC efficiency still a work in progress
While most aged care providers surveyed say that their funding and care minute strategies are functioning adequately, many are unsure, a poll finds.
Over a third of aged care providers and leaders taking part in an industry poll are unsure whether their residential aged care funding and care minute strategies are efficient and working well.
It indicates a lack of confidence or awareness in current processes, said Mirus Australia in a statement about the snapshot of views from 211 participants across 175 aged care organisations about their strategies relating to the Australian National Aged Care Classification funding model and care minute requirements.
Positively, over half of respondents agreed or strongly agree their current strategies were efficient and working well, however a third of those that took part in the poll were unsure, which Mirus Australia chief executive officer Andrew Farmer says is concerning.
“The poll results indicate that providers have some uncertainty about AN-ACC and care minutes in their strategies and how they are managing it,” Mr Farmer told Australian Ageing Agenda.
“Many providers are still thinking about AN-ACC in a similar way to Aged Care Funding Instrument and seeking to maximise their subsidy, but AN-ACC works differently to ACFI. Pushing up subsidy comes with increased care minutes and many providers are struggling to meet the care minute obligations under this strategy.”
AN-ACC replaced ACFI in October 2022 and providers have been required to meet a sector wide average of 200 care minutes per resident per day including 40 minutes from a registered nurse since October 2023. This will increase to 215 care minutes per resident per day including 44 minutes of direct RN care – of which up to 10 percent can come from an enrolled nurse.
The survey also asked about the availability of resources to manage funding and care minute processes, and applications to manage related data security.
It found a similar proportion of respondents were unsure in both cases (34 per cent).
The level of uncertainty among poll respondents is “consistent with what we’re seeing in the industry,” said Mr Farmer.
“Providers are faced with so many changes and challenges that many have not yet really optimised their systems and processes around funding and care minutes.”
Mr Farmer explains that the initial two years of AN-ACC saw the proliferation of spreadsheets and manual processes in a bid to manage the information flows required for the new AN-ACC model and care minutes.
“This has filled a need in the short term but increasing risks with data security and inefficiencies created by manual processes and information systems are not sustainable and should be addressed in the future,” Mr Farmer said.
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