Software vendors kept in the dark
The Aged Care IT Vendors Association has criticised the Department of Health and Ageing for keeping the makers of specialist aged care software out in the cold when funding policies change. Now they want to be let into the tent.
Above: ACIVA president and CEO of Leecare, Caroline Lee, gives a presentation at the ITAC 2012 conference.
The recent changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) announced on 21 June raised the ire of many aged care providers, and now a group of specialist aged care software vendors has also expressed its frustration at the uncertainty created by the change.
The Aged Care IT Vendors Association (ACIVA), which represents most Australian developers of aged care software, has criticised the way the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) handled the changes.
The association is not happy about the length of time between the announcement of the most recent changes to the ACFI on 21 June, and the date when those changes took effect, 1 July.
“Aged care providers depend heavily on the residential aged care software produced by ACIVA’s members and ACIVA wants the industry to know that we had not been involved, given any information nor forewarning of the changes announced by DoHA on Thursday, 21st June in time to allow the various modifications to software to accommodate the changes,” a statement from the association’s secretariat said.
Caroline Lee, president of ACIVA and CEO of Leecare, issued a separate message specifically to her own clients, in which she also said that DoHA had led them to believe that the changes were likely to be put on hold.
“… following our enquiries on 14 June regarding comments clients had made to us, we received official confirmation that no immediate changes were expected due to the industry’s dispute with DoHA regarding the expected significant industry funding decrease that would be commensurate with the changes,” Ms Lee told clients.
The ACIVA statement continued, “In the past and despite requests … DoHA have not allowed ACIVA members to even be on the email lists and fax streams used by DoHA to inform service providers of annual and half-yearly changes in rates and conditions.”
Software vendors have always relied on their clients in the aged care sector to inform them of changes to subsidy levels, which has led to a number of days lag before aged care software programs can be updated to reflect a policy change.
According to ACIVA, the aged care providers who use the specialist computer programs “quite reasonably … expect the software to be modified and available when the changes are announced”.
The vendors association said it had raised the matter with DoHA more than once over several years “without success”, and that on the most recent occasion, representatives of the Department said their advice was that updating the software would only take most vendors about one hour.
Vendors among the association’s membership quote different amounts of time to make the changes, according to Caroline Lee, depending on how central the ACFI funding calculations are to their software’s functions. But those estimates, she said, ranged from several hours to nine days.
ACIVA said its members “have been flooded with calls from their clients, the aged care operators, wanting to know when their software will be compliant with the new changes”.
In a message to its clients as much as to the federal department, the vendors’ association has pledged on behalf of its members to “do everything in their capacity to ensure that their software and services will bring their products up to date as soon as possible”.
“ACIVA will continue to push with DoHA to get them to understand the impact that their late and confusing changes have on the aged care industry and the software developers and vendors who deliver a critical service for providers.”
ACIVA recommends that any specific questions regarding availability of changes be directed to the relevant software provider.
[Update, 24 July] The Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, provided a short response to AAA, in response to the association’s claims:
“Aged care providers’ IT vendors will need to make very small changes to existing software as a result of the changes to ACFI,” Mr Butler said. “The Department of Human Services (DHS) payment system has already been updated to reflect the new rules.”
Quite clearly, neither the Minister nor the Dept of Health & Ageing have the common courtesy or good manners to think about informing anybody outside the canopy of coziness occupied by the negotiators of compromise who were blinded by all the magic of the smoke and mirrors showtime. Another trait of the Gillard Government
It’s not the fault of the Gillard Government. Government’s change, bureaucrats remain. It’s purely a Department fault and it will only be fixed if the Departmental Secretary orders it to be fixed.
Or perhaps there is another side to his story, but no attempt at balance here.
Bad journalism does not make truth.