Not everyone backing user pay to increase viability
Many aged care leaders say the sector’s funding is inadequate but far fewer think more user pay in accommodation and services is the solution.

Almost all aged care leaders taking part in an industry survey say the sector’s funding is inadequate but only half think more opportunities to boost user pay revenue in accommodation and services is the solution.
Aged care consultancy and benchmarking firm Mirus Australia surveyed 276 individuals from 207 aged care organisations in late May and June about the sector’s funding landscape and financial sustainability.
The survey – which was open to anyone registering for Mirus Australia’s 29 June webinar on planning for financial sustainability – was completed mostly by finance leaders (84 responses) and chief executive officers, director and managing directors (75 responses), a spokesperson for Mirus Australia told Australian Ageing Agenda.

Almost all of those surveyed (95 per cent) indicated a current funding gap with 49 per cent saying a boost of more than 15 per cent was required.
Just half of those surveyed said care funding would be considered adequate if there were more opportunities to include greater user pays revenue in accommodation and services.

Almost nine in 10 respondents (89 per cent) indicated that their organisations would continue to undergo significant transformation to increase financial sustainability, according to the results.
Mirus Australia’s regular polling of providers shows a lot of uncertainty remains around funding and financial sustainability for residential aged care, said partner Andrew Farmer.

“There is still a long road ahead for reform and an unrelenting pace of change. There will need to be new approaches to generating income outside of taxpayer care subsidies but maybe user pays is not the whole answer.
“The industry will need to come out of the last several years of holding on to really innovate in the next few years,” Mr Farmer told AAA.
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