Introduction to aged care collection
How cost collection works and why it matters for aged care reform.
The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) is an independent national agency, trusted by government, that provides evidence-based pricing on health and aged care services.
In August 2022, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made recommendations to establish an independent pricing authority for aged care services, as funding did not reflect the cost of care delivery in residential aged care. To address this recommendation, the Australian Government expanded IHACPA’s remit to include support for aged care. This recognised IHACPA’s decade of work in funding reforms in public hospitals nationally.
Aged care reform is complex and there are many agencies involved in rolling out reforms.
IHACPA’s role is to provide the government with evidence-based advice on the cost of care that reflects the actual costs of delivering care. The final price is then set by the system operator, the Department of Health and Aged Care, and government.
The costing and pricing processes are ongoing and evolving. Costing and pricing in aged care will be a journey that involves collecting cost data from the aged care sector, consulting stakeholders and gathering evidence to provide pricing advice for residential aged care, residential respite care and Support at Home services.
Navigating a new space trying to price services that have never been priced before requires a sophisticated approach. IHACPA’s highly skilled specialist analysts who have been developing pricing for public hospitals for more than a decade are now applying the same rigour to aged care services.
The first step in developing pricing advice is to undertake cost collection. This provides a better understanding of the costs of delivering aged care services in residential and in-home settings.
How do cost collections work?
IHACPA’s cost collections gather cost and activity data from a wide range of aged care providers with different geographic, demographic, residence type and individual characteristics.
This delivers what is called ‘representative costed data sets’ that will support the refinement of classifying aged care costs and activities over time.
Why are cost collections important?
Cost collections are the first activity in developing an understanding of the drivers and variation in cost data, to help improve the quality and integrity of data collection.
To ensure accurate and standardised costing across the aged care sector for activity-based funding, it is essential to understand the factors driving costs.
This enables IHACPA to develop a sustainable approach to aged care cost data collection, which continues the development and refinement of costing in aged care.
Get involved
IHACPA is currently undertaking costing projects to contribute to the development of data collection specifications and data acquisition methodologies for the aged care sector.
All providers are encouraged to attend one of their upcoming webinar sessions Introduction to aged care collection.
Both sessions will present the same information, including:
- an overview of how cost collection works, how it benefits the aged care sector, and why sector participation is so important.
- insight into IHACPA’s role in aged care and what has been achieved from past cost collections
- details about upcoming cost collections and how you can get involved with either or both, the Residential Aged Care Cost Collection 2024 and the Support at Home in Aged Care Cost Collection 2024.
Following the discussion, you will be able to ask questions through a live Q&A.
Webinar dates
- 12pm to 1pm on Wednesday 10 April 2024 (AEST)
- 12pm to 1pm on Wednesday 24 April 2024 (AEST)
A recording of the first webinar will be published to the IHACPA website.
Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
Eora National, Level 12, 1 Oxford St, Sydney NSW 2000
Visit: www.ihacpa.gov.au
Email: enquiries.ihacpa@ihacpa.gov.au
Phone: (02) 8215 1100
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/company/independent-hospital-pricing-authority/
