Seniors are being billed “extortionate” prices for meals, showers, cleaning and in-home nursing care at taxpayers’ expense, with costs tripling for some services in the 12 months since the Albanese Government launched its Support at Home Scheme. Source: The Australian.
Nutritional smoothies that cost seniors $19.95 last year are now being billed at $118, while the price of a dozen pre-packaged meals has soared from $88 to $264, a Senate inquiry has been told in damning evidence of “administrative rorting”, as in-home care companies cash in on $10 billion of commonwealth funding.
State governments and the federal government’s own aged care watchdog have blown the whistle on “price gouging” that is chewing through public funding for elderly Australians’ in-home care – with NSW Health revealing an elderly patient who paid $300 a month for in-home care under a legacy Home Care Package is now being charged $1440 for the same service through the replacement Support at Home scheme.
“Many prices being currently charged by providers are extortionate,” the Aged Rights Advocacy Service, ARAS, has told the Senate inquiry, which is due to report on its year-long investigation into Support at Home next week.
The Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care has warned that prices for in-home nursing, domestic assistance and allied health care have soared in the 12 months since the government replaced Home Care Packages (HCP) with the new Support at Home scheme (SAH), which will cost taxpayers $10 billion this financial year.
Support at Home provides government funding of between $11,000 and $80,000 a year to senior Australians requiring clinical, personal or household assistance in their own homes, to keep them out of aged care facilities.
The Inspector-General told the inquiry that financial analysts had advised Support at Home providers to “raise their prices by 40 per cent compared to what they charged under the preceding HCP program”.
“The system itself is generating hardship,” the Inspector-General’s submission states.
“Providers needed to raise their prices to maintain their viability … however it is unclear whether increases of 40 per cent were warranted.
“A regime that permits providers to charge any margin they choose, provided it is disclosed, risks price gouging from care budgets.”
When it launched Support at Home, the Albanese Government said it would cap prices from July 1 this year – but then deferred the price cap indefinitely.
The federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing said home service providers cannot charge a price that is “unreasonable”.
FULL STORY
Elderly suffer bill shock after Albanese government delays price caps for in-home aged care (By Natasha Bita, The Australian)
