Means testing delays causing havoc
Seniors are waiting up to six weeks to have their income and assets assessed, which is causing havoc for consumers, families and aged care providers across the country.
UPDATED: The Department of Human Services has responded to AAA’s questions. See below
Seniors are waiting up to six weeks to have their income and assets assessed, which is causing havoc for consumers, families and aged care providers across the country.
In addition to the backlog in processing the means tests, Australian Ageing Agenda has sighted incorrect assessments that have been returned to seniors. In one case, the Department of Human Services had effectively doubled the resident’s assets in error.
As a result of the delays, providers are admitting residents without resident agreements, or signing incomplete agreements that require revision once the means testing is received.
As per the new changes that came into effect since 1 July, all new residents moving into an aged care facility need to have their income and assets assessed by the Department of Human Services. This assessment is used to determine the costs residents can be asked to pay.
AAA has seen numerous examples of delays in processing the income and assets assessments.
One provider spoke of a resident’s son who had been waiting six weeks for his mother’s means test.
“I received advice from the department about a phone number I could contact to expedite an assessment… the gentleman I spoke to laughed when I said I wanted to speed things up. He said he would notify the appropriate persons of my request but said it would not speed things up much because of the backlog. Other potential residents have sent in an income and assets assessment request before 23 July and still don’t have a statement,” they said.
Signing without full information
The provider said that in the absence of the assessment, the resident signed an agreement that did not give an accurate picture of fees and charges “because we do not have the information.”
“It is distressing for him because he cannot manage his mother’s finances appropriately until he has this information. The transition to the new accommodation pricing is complex enough without this added problem,” they said.
There were multiple other examples of potential residents who could not commit to taking a place until they knew what they would pay, she said.
Informed decision
Another provider said they had 13 admissions since 1 July but just one had received an income and assets assessment.
“We have brought them in knowing there is a risk in that the resident has not made an informed decision. We ensure the resident knows this or their family,” the provider said.
“If we don’t bring them in we would have elderly people at high risk in the community,” they added.
Incorrect assessment returned
In another case, a provider has reported a resident receiving an incorrect assessment.
The family followed up with Centrelink in July, and when Centrelink staff checked the details they confirmed the error, the provider said.
“They had not updated her asset information; they had added the new information to the older information and effectively doubled her assets. The staff member agreed Centrelink had made a mistake and they would reissue the letter with the correct details.”
However, five weeks after the initial error was identified, the family has still not received the corrected assessment, the provider said.
“The family have followed up on the hotline and gotten no meaningful outcome. We have since admitted this resident using an approximation of the accommodation contribution using the My Aged Care fees calculator; however, it has caused a lot of stress to the resident in the interim.”
ACSA seeking action
Aged and Community Services Australia said it had held “urgent teleconferences” with both DSS and DHS this week. ACSA reported that DSS had expressed their major concerns with the delays and that DHS had transferred staff to assist with the processing of means tests.
ACSA chief executive officer John Kelly told AAA that the situation was untenable.
“DHS has had significant online Medicare claiming problems for community care providers and any new system should have been fully tested before its implementation. Providers are there to care for frail older Australians, not to be subjected to ham-fisted attempts at implementing government policy,” he said.
Adjunct Professor Kelly said there were serious implications if providers did not comply with regulations but when a major government department was unable to do its part of the job, there were assurances that everything was being done, yet nothing appeared to change.
“We have been advising both DHS and DSS of these issues and have briefed ministers and senior bureaucrats. Our members are sick of the excuses and want only to be able to go about caring for people and not being caught up in a bureaucratic bungle not of their making,” he said.
DHS responds
In response to a number of questions from Australian Ageing Agenda, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services provided the following response:
“The department is aware there have been some delays in the automatic generation of letters and is urgently working to resolve the issue. The department is generating some letters manually while the errors are being fixed and checking all other letters thoroughly. A number of the system issues have now been fixed and an increasing number of letters are now being generated automatically. The Department of Human Services has established a dedicated team to manually generate and issue the determination letters.
“Since 1 July 2014, the department has dispatched about 5,000 letters (including letters on behalf of the Department of Veterans Affairs). Many letters advising the outcome of means tests have been sent out, and a dedicated team will remain in place to ensure all letters are sent to customers as soon as possible. If a delay in providing a letter is causing inconvenience or if someone is in the position of urgently needing to access aged care recipients or their nominee, they should contact us on 1800 227 475 as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise to affected customers and thank them for their ongoing patience whilst this issue was being resolved.”
1.The new My Aged Care Fee Calculator is very simple to use and accurate. Every person can work out their likely mean-tested care fee (MTCF) same day. Many residential care service admission staff assist families in using it at their meeting or on the phone.
2.The My Aged Care Fee Calculator can also be used before entry to calculate the MTCF at a later date if the resident elects to sell thier home.
3.The is no need to delay signing a resident agreement until after the written advice of MTCF is received. The figure calculated from the Fee Calculator can be used as the interim figure until the written advice is received. Alternatively, a deposit is often sought to be paid by the family to limit accumulating interest at the MPIR of 6.69%pa. Any unpaid is effectively secured against this deposit.
4. The residential care service has a Pre-admission Agreement that includes all necessary information that a resident must have before admission. A place can then be offered and accepted quickly.
5.It would only ever be possible to already have a written assessment of a person’s assets and income from the Commonwealth if all persons delayed their entry to residential care. Many admissions are urgent. Occupancy is falling in this country and residents need to be admitted in a timely fashion. The sector never delayed admissions until receiving an income-tested fee (ITF) advice in the past and should not delay with the new MTCF arrangements, particularly with the very user-friendly Fee Calculator available on line.
6. The new MTCF arrangements include an assets test and many persons will have to make serious financial decisions including whether to keep the house. Calculating the MTCF is simple enough. Working out how to pay the RAD/DAP and the impact on the MTCF is more complex. Good quality third-party financial advice is much more important than ever.
James Underwood.
It would be a nice thing to have things sorted within weeks of admission. My mother in law was admitted to a nursing home in July 2014. It is now August 2015 and they still haven’t sorted out the means tested fee. This is essentially due to DSS/DHS assigning her multiple reference numbers which do not talk to each other or DVA. I made a ministerial complaint in June this year about the trouble we have had and yesterday got a reply from Marise Payne. The reply told me the problem had been resolved in June (it hasn’t), that a refund was due (which has not been received) and that a staff member had contacted me on 10 July to explain it all (she didn’t and I have never spoken to the person named). All staff I have spoken to tell me it is a common problem that is difficult to fix. FOURTEEN MONTHS!!!!!! They are hopeful it will be correct in the next quarterly review in September. I had spoken to DHS in the morning yesterday and they had no record in the file of my complaint being made but that afternoon a letter is waiting at home full of misinformation and falsehoods saying my complaint has been dealt with. I have put a letter in return post to Marise Payne with a suitable response.