Review into Conditional Adjustment Payment – 2009-2010
Almost 70 submissions were received by the Australian Government’s Review of the Conditional Adjustment Payment (CAP) in residential aged care. Submissions were received from for-profit commercial providers, not-for-profit mission-based providers, unions, associations, state and local governments and individual members of the community.
The full submissions can be examined at the Department of Health & Ageing website. The submissions are now being considered by the Australian Government within the context and deliberations of the 2009-2010 Federal Budget.
The CAP was introduced in 2004-05 by the previous Government to provide additional medium term financial assistance to residential aged care providers while encouraging them to become more efficient through improved management practices.
The Aged Care Industry Council’s (ACIC) submission says the annual continuation of the CAP indexation is crucial, adding that a similar provision should be introduced for community care providers.
“The limitation of the CAP payment to only residential aged care followed directly from the Terms of Reference of the Hogan Review but, given that the principal cost of providing all forms of care is wages, there is no logical reason to expect that similar cost pressures do not apply with at least equal force in community care,” the submission said.
ACIC also called for a longer term solution to the financial viability issues affecting aged care services.
