New powers to crack down on unfair Support at Home pricing

The federal government has announced a package of consumer protections for people using Support at Home, giving the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission power to order refunds where providers are found to be overcharging.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae unveiled the measures on Tuesday, 19 May, following a tour of providers in Cairns and ahead of a Today Show appearance on Wednesday morning.

The package includes:

• Refund orders. The Commission can now direct providers found to be overcharging to refund the money to affected clients’ budgets. It can also take regulatory action against providers not issuing monthly statements, with public reporting on investigations and enforcement.
• Quarterly price comparisons. The government will publish a National Summary of Support at Home Prices each quarter, showing the median and the range of prices charged by providers nationally.
• Price increase limits. Providers will be encouraged to raise prices no more than twice a year, giving clients more certainty when budgeting their packages.
• Personal care monitoring. The Department and the Commission will specifically track prices for personal care services as they move into the Clinical Care category. This follows the government’s earlier removal of out-of-pocket costs for showering, dressing and continence care.
• A new working group bringing together OPAN, COTA Australia, Ageing Australia and the Commission, focused on defining what “reasonable” pricing means, consulting on the multi-provider model, and developing guidance for people who self-manage their packages.
• Funding for OPAN and COTA to expand financial advocacy and consumer education, including information on service agreements, rights, and how to compare prices.

The package does not include formal price caps. The government confirmed it is deferring caps until it has “greater confidence in the stability of the market.”

Rae pointed to the NDIS as a reason for caution.

“One of the things that we’ve seen where price caps have been introduced is that doesn’t effectively act as a cap, it acts as a price setting mechanism,” he told Cairns radio station 4CA. “All of the providers who are providing that service below the cap raise their prices right up to the cap.”

He said global cost pressures, including labour costs in the care sector, made this the wrong time to set caps against a volatile baseline.

The Older Persons Advocacy Network welcomed the oversight measures but was direct about the gap the delay leaves.

“The decision to delay pricing caps means older people will continue to face uncertainty about what they will pay for essential services,” said Samantha Edmonds, OPAN’s Director of Policy, Education and Systemic Advocacy. “Older people are already enduring a cost-of-living crisis and having access to reasonable and affordable care is essential for their wellbeing.”

Edmonds also called for local price transparency, saying national summaries alone aren’t enough.

“Older people need to be able to compare prices in their local area to ensure they can make informed choices about providers.”

She also renewed OPAN’s call for Support at Home packages to be indexed to cost pressures, warning that without CPI-aligned indexation, “package values will not keep pace with rising service costs, forcing older people to go without care.”

Rae acknowledged the sector had seen “some inappropriate pricing behaviour” from a small number of providers, but said the Commission had not found evidence of systemic price rorting.

The working group is expected to develop clearer definitions of reasonable pricing and a pathway toward enforceable caps. OPAN said that work needs to lead somewhere concrete: “It is critical that this process leads to clear, enforceable protections, including the timely introduction of well-designed price caps.”