Ed,
Your informative issue of August 9 carried a very important item of news from National Seniors Australia dealing with the Federal Government’s Aged Care Task Force and its proposed changes to how aged care is dispensed in future.
May I add to the proposals outlined by pointing out how the present Home Care Package programme is run by some tax-free providers to the detriment of the thousands of elderly and infirm package holders here on the Clarence and elsewhere in Australia.
Some HCP clients receiving, for instance, Package 3 level services currently have their government subsidised budgets charged at $76 an hour for house cleaning and personal care as opposed to commercial companies charging up to only $45 an hour — and these firms provide their own cleaning equipment and materials at no extra charge.
But, in addition to the $76 hourly charge, certain providers levy an additional total “management fee” of anything up to an additional 30 per cent for no apparent benefit to any of their clients. In the case of a Package 3 service, the management fees can amount to $11,700 a year.
Such charges are not required by commercial cleaners who report satisfactory profits from the much lower $45 an hour.
In one example known to me, the client receives five hours of cleaning etc service a week for a total cost of approximately $19,760 a year out an annual subsidy of $39,310, leaving $19,550 but the management fees of $11,726 a year leave only $7,824 (or $150 a week) for essential medical aids, equipment, therapies, shopping travel and transport to doctors’ appointments.
Incredibly, such a client is actually paying their provider $121 an hour to have their home cleaned and have simple personal services rendered (such as showering).
It beggars’ belief to the writer how the Federal authorities allow such an expenditure of taxpayer funds to happen when commercial concerns can do the job for $45 an hour and make a satisfactory profit without any additional management fees attached.
Another very serious aspect to this particular story is that the government instituted Home Care Packages to encourage the elderly to stay at home and not seek the more expensive accommodation available in aged care institutions. But the heavy erosion of package finances through exaggerated costs will only lead to these people leaving their homes for aged care hostels, nursing homes and the like.
One is also concerned that extensive government taxpayer funds are being supposedly spent on the people in need but too big a slice is obviously ending up in certain provider bank accounts.
I have for the past three years been advocating a change in favour of the elderly on behalf of a number of package holders. It can only be hoped that the powers that be will take a serious look at the HCP package management fee overcharging without any further delay.
When I have pointed out the excessive hourly costs being levied on package holders, I am continually told that it administratively costs up to $121 an hour to sweep and clean a home although the carers involved only earn about $30 an hour plus a little more for benefits. My retort to this, as a former economist and journalist, can only be that the provider in question has a very questionable business plan or is subsidising another interest.
Oscar Tamsen, Yamba