Budget: Additional funding for rural packages, consumer gateway
Some 7,000 older Home Care Packages recipients are among those who will benefit from changes to the remoteness classification within the aged care viability supplement, the Federal Government announced in this week’s budget.
Aimed at targeting areas of greatest need more effectively, the government will provide $102.3 million over four years from January 2017 to implement the Modified Monash Model, as recommended in the Aged Care Financing Authority report, Financial Issues Affecting Rural and Remote Providers,
While the supplement was designed to address cost pressures due to isolation and the small size of many rural and remote locations, it currently relies on 1990s’ Census data to classify location, which benefits regions that have since become more metropolitan, while disadvantaging those that have decreased in population in that time.
Around 7,000 home care recipients along with residents of around 250 residential services and in or near outer regional towns will benefit from higher funding.
Further, around 100 multi-purpose services that provide home and/or residential care, plus an additional five National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program providers, will also attract a higher viability supplement funding under the new arrangements, according to the budget papers.