The Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA), which provides the Government with evidence-backed advice on the cost of delivering aged care services, is requesting that aged care providers involved in costing studies provide them with additional costing data to the Aged Care Financial Report (ACFR) and Quarterly Financial Reports (QFR), which provide a significant portion of the data.
Additional costing data comes from StewartBrown, and other data is provided in a supplementary financial data template.
An example is administration costs, which are captured in the supplementary financial data template.
Direct care time data is obtained from staff and residents wearing Bluetooth proximity devices.
"IHACPA is collecting data supplementary to the Aged Care Financial Reports and Quarterly Financial Reports to understand the nature of costs associated with the care provided," a spokesperson for IHACPA told The SOURCE.
"IHACPA’s cost data collections are used to understand cost drivers and the variation of costs within the aged care sector
"Cost collection is necessary to ensure that IHACPA’s pricing advice to the Australian Government is informed by the actual costs of delivering care."
Once collected, costs are mapped into three expense streams: Care expenses (direct care labour, indirect care costs and other resident expenses), Hotel expenses (cleaning, catering, laundry and other hotel expenses), and Accommodation expenses.
In each stream, costs are allocated to individual residents using direct care minutes and occupied beds data.
Administration expenses are allocated across all three expense streams.
IHACPA is hosting a webinar to help the sector understand the cost collection process on 24 April 2024. You can find out more here.
