Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 7:01:05 to 7:11:18
Discussion on the financial penalties applied to homes failing to meet mandatory care minute targets. Officials provide statistics on funding reductions in MMM1 regions and the upward trend of facilities meeting both care minute and registered nurse targets.
Topics: Health, Workplace relations
Speakers: Senator The Hon Anne Ruston, Mr Daen Dorazio, Mr Mark Shen, Mr Blair Comley, Ms Sonja Stewart, Mr Luke Mansfield
So since care minute penalties commenced on the 1st of April 2026, how many homes have had their funding reduced
Just trying to get another bit of information.
You're asking, sorry, Senator, can you just repeat the question?
Since since the penalties came into effect in terms of not meeting care minutes on in in April, how many homes have had their funding reduced as a result of not meeting those care minutes?
Sorry, Senator. Uh Mark Chen. Assistant Secretary, residential care and markets. Um moment.
Senator, sorry, I can give you that. So in terms of the number of homes that did not receive the full supplement, I think is the is what you're you're getting at there. Um there are 1,516 homes in the system that are eligible for the supplement. Of those 1,036 received the full supplement. So you can do the maths.
No, 480.
480. Of that 480, 433 of that saw a funding reduction that was between zero to five dollars per on a per resident per day basis. So they're heavily clustered at relatively small um reductions.
So that would suggest they're fairly small reductions. That means they've probably only breached in a fairly small way, but nonetheless they've still been paid. That's correct. So what's the total amount of money that has not been paid out in terms of full supplement for those um 48 homes that
Yep. Um so very quickly, Senator. Um once again, Mark Chen. The between April and so for June quarter 2026, we estimate that the sector will release will receive 12 million dollars and less funding as a result of.
12 million in three months. Okay, how many of those um 480 um homes that were affected were in rural regional or remote Australia?
Uh none of them. So the care minutes that policy only applies to homes in MM1 regions?
And can I M1, yep.
Yeah, sorry, correct.
Can I just make a comment to Senator? My recollection of when the supplement policy was put in place is that those who received the full supplement would actually receive a slightly higher payment than would be respect would be reflected in the normal ANAC pricing. That was the way the scheme was designed. So it's if you think about a world in which you didn't have this policy, uh the $12 million is not a reflection of what you get as a full discount from the ANAC price.
So what happens to rural regional remote homes that are unable to meet their um their care minute um requirements. Um is that a sort of a blanket waiving of any punitive action from the department?
Uh no, it's it so two things effectively happen if a home doesn't meet its requirements. One, it can impact on its star rating, and the second is the commission is the regulator the the relevant regulator, and will obviously take a risk-based approach, but can take regulatory action where they feel that it's going to impact on.
But you made the comment that if this only applied to MMM1. The supplement, so therefore, in effect the penalty, the financial penalty only applies to MMM1.
Yes.
Is there any financial um penalty that can be applied to MM2 through seven?
There is there is not under the care minutes policy, but obviously the the Commission could take regulatory action if it deemed that that was appropriate.
Okay, so there's no direction to the Commission. Ms. Heffrim Webb is um into the Commission to not take any action? That's entirely your discretion, Ms. Heffernan and Webb?
We wouldn't take any direction one way or another towards the Commission on that.
Yeah.
I think it's important to note that um overall though the care minutes targets are increasing each time that that they are collected. So that's important there's an alternate trajectory on that.
Okay, so in terms of the 480 that did have their supplements reduced, what was the maximum amount applied per day to any of those
minutes?
I'm just checking if I have that.
Um notice if that's the same.
Uh we might take the exact amount on notice. So not a farm because we measure these things in bands.
Yep, sure.
Yeah, sorry, Senator, yeah, I don't have the exact number. I'm only aware of one home that saw a reduction above $30 per day. Which is significant, but that's one home.
Yep, okay.
So uh can I just clarify when you say the registered nurse targets?
Um if you both have referring to the number of minutes.
And the RN minutes.
R N minutes and you've you've obviously got the 24.
The 24-7.
Yep.
Yeah, and and the the performance on 24-7 is you know 99 over 99%. But the um of the there were 2,446 homes in the um last quarter of 2005 calendar year uh that reported care minutes. So which sorry, uh that's for the uh October quarter of 2025, which is when I have the latest October 20 minutes.
Oh, sorry.
I was uh on the wrong page. Apologies, so I'll just go back. So sorry, the latest data that I have is for April to June 2026. So the final quarter of 25-26 financial year. Um in that quarter, 2,536 homes reported care minutes. Of them the 66.3% met both targets, so that's 1682.
Yep.
Um and 71% met 71.6% met their total care minutes target, and 83.8% met their RN minutes targets.
So only 66.3 met both. Okay, and how does that compare with um the uh the September quarter of 25 or previous quarters?
So it's been um for total care minutes uh. Uh I only have the so I don't have the percentages. I I'll have to take that on notice. I'm sorry, Senator.
Okay.
Uh sorry, Senator, I may be able to assist. Um in uh so Mr. DeRise just gave you quarter four, twenty-five-26. In quarter three, twenty-five twenty-six, um the percentage of homes at Beth met both care minute targets was sixty-free point seven. Um the quarter before that was sixty-free point um one. So it's zero five, so round it to one. Um and prior to that it was fifty-nine point three four, so that has been an upwards trend in the number of portion of homes meeting both targets.
Okay.
We can also provide this um trend data as well.
Sure, significantly short, but going in the right direction. Has the department done any assessment about the impact of care minute penalties on provider viability? And are you aware of any homes that have closed or reduced the number of places since April this year, citing the penalty factor as the contributing reason for them doing so?
To answer the first part of your question, Sam, so no, we haven't done that analysis. It's still very early. We've only got one quarter to go on. To answer the second, I'm I'm not aware of any home having raised that with me. That's not to say that some main might make a make that representation elsewhere, but I'm not aware of any.
Sure. Um the department's own financial report on the aged care sector shows that administrative costs have increased per resident per day. I think it went from 43 dollars per resident per day, 21, 22, 50 dollars per day, 23, 24, and $54 a day, 24-25. I'm just wondering, do you have the 25-26 data?