Work to continue this week on My Aged Care upgrades following data issues
Some existing clients have not been assigned a home care package following the updates to My Aged Care over the weekend, as the department confirms manual data work is underway to fix the issues.
Some existing clients have not been assigned a home care package following the updates to My Aged Care over the weekend, as the department confirms manual data work is underway to fix the issues.
The government’s My Aged Care system underwent a major upgrade to support the landmark Increasing Choice in Home Care reforms, which came into effect on Monday (read today’s story on the reforms here).
The department emailed providers late on Tuesday morning to notify them that a range of manual data work had to be performed to finalise the assignment of home care packages to clients currently receiving care.
It said some home care clients were unable to be assigned a package over the weekend due to a range of reasons including the way information was set up in My Aged Care at various levels.
The department said it would need to reactivate outlets or services for some providers to ensure clients could be assigned a package and providers could continue to claim against these clients.
Providers may see some referrals come in and out of their portals as a result of this work, which is expected to be completed by Sunday 5 March, it said.
Changes to client data was one of the key updates implemented to support the reforms. Other changes to My Aged Care include:
- new information fields for home care providers to detail their services
- ability for assessors to issue referrals after finalising an assessment along with new mandatory fields for assessors recommending home care
- additional fields in the service finder and enhanced sort and filter options in all portals
- changes to service referrals for providers.
Upgrades went well: department
A spokesperson for the Department of Health told Australian Ageing Agenda on Wednesday the launch of the system upgrade had gone well and that the significant system changes and enhancements within My Aged Care were available from 8am Monday as planned.
The gateway was prepared for a high volume of calls from consumers and providers following the upgrade and preferenced calls from consumers, the spokesperson said.
Consumers had an average call wait time under two minutes on Monday while the provider and assessor helpline had an average call wait time of just over five minutes, they said.
On Monday afternoon, the department emailed providers an update on identified “performance issues” affecting the My Aged Care assessor and provider portals related to the upgrade that it was investigating.
Those issues included users prevented from making changes in the portal, including updating client information or continuing assessments, when using the Firefox web browser; problems using the “Find a service provider” tab in the assessor portal; and the addition or removal of home care package client information, some of which the department said was expected to support the reforms.
The department confirmed to AAA that the Firefox web browser issues were resolved overnight and issues causing the system to run “a little slow” through part of Monday were resolved by the end of the day.
Groups monitoring roll out
Provider groups Aged & Community Services Australia and Leading Age Services Australia said they were monitoring the implementation of the changes to ensure a smooth transition and would act if required.
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My Aged Care is really awful. So much wrong with it, I don’t know where to start. It’s too big, too slow, too bureaucratic. It disenfranchises older people. Their information is less accessible. Their privacy is compromised. Waiting lists are longer. Complaints are up. It’s unnecessarily tedious. Wasteful. Practitioners hate it. It’s made things worse. Morale in the industry has plummeted. It was designed by technonerds and out of touch bureaucrats who had no idea and did not consult with workers in the field. A disaster.
That sums it up perfectly thanks Terry Kelly >)
My mother currently has no package yet she has been on a Level 2 for 4 years or so and was receiving care at Level 3. When we swapped providers, we were told her package had expired as we had not taken up a package within the 66 days. We actually had no lapses at all. I have had this matter referred at least 3 times in the past 5 weeks and still no reply. Today is D Day. I will see what if anything has been fixed then off to complain to the complaints Commissioner then the Ombudsman. Fed up!