ACAA unveils capital strategy

The Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) National Congress has endorsed a series of no-cost and low-cost strategies to improve the industry’s capital position.

Included in the list of recommendations was a call for refundable deposits, or bonds in high care, although the association’s CEO Rod Young stressed the importance of looking at alternative strategies.

“Bonds have been the industry’s preferred position for over a decade and we will keep pushing that but other options need to be considered,” he said.

“I think it’s essential to look at ways of improving productivity and efficiencies without the huge costs.”

At the top of the list was a removal of the cap on daily accommodation charges for older people with higher incomes.

The group also suggested increasing the accommodation charge, for those on medium incomes, to a rate equivalent to the average bond in the previous year.

“Under this government and the previous government, people have been protected unnecessarily from the industry for too long,” said Aegis CEO, Geoff Taylor, who also presented the proposals.

“People need to be able to make their own choice about the care they want to receive.”

The congress endorsed a $280 million recommendation to link concessional payments to the previous year’s average bond as well.

On the basis of the other proposals being accepted, ACAA recommended that ACAT assessments should be seen as a ‘ticket’ into the aged care system, without specifying whether a person needs high, low or community care.

“We think that our aged care system is a very good one,” said Mr Taylor. “It just needs some tweaking around the edges.”