The final day of the funding, financing and prudential regulation hearings has ended on a fiery note – here’s a list of the key takeaways.
Senior Counsel Assisting Peter Gray QC delivered a sharp rebuke to the Federal Government over its 2016/17 freeze on ACFI indexation, saying that aged care providers are being “stretched beyond their limits” by a funding system designed to focus on helping the Government toe the financial bottom line.
Mr Gray maintained that the proper response to the claims of over-claiming by providers in 2016 would have been to investigate and then issue targeted sanctions against those that had been found to be over-claiming.
“Instead, the Department’s position was in effect a form of collective sanction, and this was inappropriate,” he stated.
Government unwilling to pay up for aged care
The Counsel suggested that the real reason behind the freeze was that the Government was unwilling to meet the rising costs of the system it had set up.
“When Dr Murphy said that the huge increase in costs at the time would’ve certainly placed an unexpected fiscal pressure on the government, and that was at transcript 9449, in saying that, Dr Murphy was tacitly acknowledging that fiscal motivations were at the heart of the action taken by the government,” he said.
The Senior Counsel concluded that the aim now should be to not repeat the mistakes of the past – again bringing the issue of trust into the equation.
Trust and confidence critical – on all sides
“Confidence is critical on all sides,” he said firmly. “Confidence on the part of the community, so that we can all prepare for old age and for our loved ones’ old age without fear of the future. Confidence on the part of providers so that proper investment is encouraged. And confidence on the part of government in accountability for the expenditure of public money on proper purposes. Confidence on the part of a dedicated and skilled work force and confidence from all that high-quality and safe care will be the result now and on into the future.”
Critical to this process will be the Counsel Assisting’s proposal for an independent aged care pricing body to oversee the sector – with more regulatory powers than the existing Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA).
“The time has passed for the determinations of subsidy amounts to be paid to aged care providers to be left in the hands of an agency with diffuse policy responsibilities or to be given cursory attention or attention at long intervals from time to time,” he said.
No more public hearings for the Royal Commission – but system governance still on the agenda
And in a major milestone for the Royal Commission, the Senior Counsel announced these hearings would be the last public hearings.
Their work will continue however with the issue of system governance – on which the Commissioners issued a call out for submissions back in June – due to be addressed when the Counsel Assisting presents its final recommendations from the funding and financing hearing to the Commissioners in a month.
As we reported last week, the Commissioners will also release a special report on the COVID outbreaks in aged care next week on Wednesday, September 30, with specific recommendations they say will speed up measures to protect residents.
We will have a full report on the recommendations in next Thursday October 1st's issue of The SOURCE.
