New investigation into residential aged care costs come as new ‘user-friendly’ website is activated

The Residential Aged Care Resource Utilisation and Classification (RUC) study will see an investigation into the comparative costs of providing residential aged care to older Australians with varying needs; while the GEN website provides unprecedented detail and ease of access to Australia’s aged care information and data breakdowns.

Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt says that both projects are the latest examples of the Government’s commitment to aged care transparency and making life easier for older Australians.

“Australians need an aged care system that is adaptable and can meet future challenges,” he says.

The RUC study will be conducted by the Australian Health Services Research Institute at the University of Wollongong and will build on a report that was completed earlier this year.

“This is the first time relative costs have been systematically studied since the 1990s,” Minister Wyatt says.

“The Government wants to work with the sector to ensure the way we fund residential aged care is fair, stable, encourages innovation and is easy to apply and understand.

“Understanding how resident characteristics drive care costs, what costs are common for all residents and what impact the location and size facilities has on costs, will help us better design the funding system.”

As for the GEN website, Minister Wyatt says it is a ‘one-stop-shop’ that will benefit older people, their families, researches and everyone needing details on aged care.

“The GEN website uses easy to understand language and illustrations to report on capacity and activity in the aged care system, including people’s care needs, assessments and the services they use,” he says.

“It is designed to cater for all levels of users, from aged care residents to academics and service providers seeking high quality data and analysis.

“Not only can users customise data to their own requirements, if they can’t find what they need there’s a tab to easily lodge requests for extra detail.”

The GEN website is accessible now while the RUC study is expected to be completed within 12 months.