The Commonwealth Ombudsman has slammed the Albanese Government’s use of a computer algorithm to determine eligibility for aged care and is calling for a system review and legal changes to allow more human judgment to be used in the process. Source: The Australian.
In a scathing assessment, Iain Anderson said “deficiencies that we identified in the design and development” of the algorithm-based Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) “raise serious questions about its suitability” for the task of working out which older Australians should have access to at-home aged care and at what level.
Mr Anderson concluded that “a reasonable person would, in our view, lack confidence that the system is in fact fair and consistent”.
The new system to assess claims for aged care support began in November last year as part of a broad suite of aged care reforms under a new act, with the government looking to focus support on helping older people remain in their own homes for longer, delaying their entry into nursing home care.
But the introduction has been far from smooth, leading to the Ombudsman’s investigation.
Mr Anderson said a key reason for the inquiry was the concerns raised by the public that the algorithm process was less than transparent and “risks significantly under-assessing an older person’s care needs, resulting in outcomes that are clinically inappropriate”.
Another concern was that the automated IAT decisions couldn’t be changed once made, even if they were inappropriate.
The Health Department said it “does not accept the (Ombudsman’s) characterisation” that meaningful evaluation and risk assessment of the assessment tool had not been done.
The Ombudsman’s report contains 10 recommendations, and the government has accepted six, but only “noted” the recommendation for legislation to be introduced to allow for human decisions to be substituted for computer-generated ones in appropriate circumstances.
Health Minister Mark Butler said his government had “heard the assessment system isn’t always getting it right, and we’ve acted”.
He said the government had already created an “escalation pathway” for those who feel their assessment doesn’t match their circumstances, and had commissioned an independent review into the assessment and priority process, due in the first half of 2027.
Mr Butler said the government would “consider the Ombudsman’s report carefully”.
FULL STORY
Aged care assessment algorithm ‘not fair or suitable’: Ombudsman (By Stephen Lunn, The Australian)
