In a surprising move, the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) has asked home care providers to tell them the hours of care they are delivering and the specific home care services they are providing in its latest newsletter.
The Department already has access to information such as location and organisation size, but is asking for the additional details ahead of the transition to Support at Home from 1 July 2025 .
The DoHAC's website states, "This survey is not an audit of individual provider capacity and we will not use for any compliance action."
But it does raise the question, one acknowledged by Croakey's Charles Maskell-Knight who advised the Aged Care Royal Commission, why doesn't the Department already have this data?
The Government spends $8 billion a year on home care – surely it wants to know where that funding is being spent?
The survey is available here.
