Start of RCS reviews
Commonwealth nursing officers have started to conduct 5,000 reviews under the Resident Classification Scale (RCS) in all states and territories.
This review was officially announced by the Treasurer in the 13 May Budget, and included a commitment to ‘claw back’ $18 million from the RCS, which has been replaced by the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).
The Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot, has promoted the review with the public by highlighting that “data from the Office of Aged Care Quality and Compliance within the Department of Health and Ageing, shows 37% of claims upon examination, had to be downgraded by Department of Health and Ageing assessors.”
One of the reasons for replacing the RCS with the ACFI was to address the volatility of RCS classifications and especially to reduce the scope for subjective judgements – including by Departmental assessors – and subsequent changes.
