Administrative burden on homecare providers
A body for age service providers is putting the government on notice that, despite its commitment to reducing red tape in age services, ongoing incompetence is creating considerably more administrative burden on homecare providers
Patrick Reid, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) chief executive, claims ongoing incompetence is creating considerably more administrative burden on homecare providers.
Patrick Reid, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) chief executive, claimed that 10 months after the introduction of a new homecare payment system administered by the Department of Human Services (DHS), service providers face an “accounting nightmare”; exacerbated by the fast approaching end of financial year.
“The new system became operational in October last year. Initially providers remained unpaid, with many facing extreme difficulty in paying staff over Christmas, some providers were owed millions in back payments,” Mr Reid said.
LASA has continued to work with DHS and the Minister’s office and payments have started to be processed.
“Now LASA members inform us that they are receiving payments without any identification, creating serious issues for businesses as they face their annual audit post 30 June,” he added.
According to Mr Reid, LASA is perplexed as to how this system incompetence can meet the government’s Red Tape Reduction Agenda, supposedly developed to increase efficiency and enhance service delivery administration.
“Considering age services is the most regulated industry it is difficult to accept such high level, and continued, systems failure preventing service providers from reconciling their own financial records at such a critical time for audit preparation,” he said.
“LASA is committed to working with government to rectify this issue urgently, preventing the possibility of providers receiving qualified external audits.”
Three quarters of a million older Australians receive homecare from 3,660 providers, with an expenditure in 2014-15 of $1.4 billion.
“Considering this expenditure and the number of older Australians affected it is critical that the system is both efficient and effective, it is currently neither,” Mr Reid said.
