13. Quick Reference Guide
Management of Home Care Packages
from 27 February 2017 (ACAT)
1. Overview of Home Care changes
This Quick Reference Guide walks through system and policy changes for
Assessors and Delegates from Aged Care Assessment Teams, delivered to support
the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Increasing Consumer Choice) Act 2016. The
legislation amends the Aged Care Act 1997 and the Aged Care (Transitional
Provisions) Act 1997 in three main areas:
1. Funding for a home care package will follow the client
2. Consistent national approach to prioritising access to home care
3. Streamlined process for organisations seeking to become approved providers
under the Aged Care Act 1997.
Further information on the reforms can be found on the Department’s website.
2. Changes for Assessors
This document will show where the key changes to the Assessor Portal are for the
management of approvals, and client preferences related to the changes introduced
on 27 February 2017 to Home Care Packages as part of the reforms. These are as
follows.
2.1 New
Changes for assessors:
1. Capture an indicator of whether or not a client is currently seeking a home
care package (‘seeking services’)
2. Set a minimum package level the client will accept on an interim basis
3. Search for an Approved Provider using new Home Care parameters
(language, culture, religion, specialised services, etc.) and send a referral for
the client
4. Receive notifications of home care correspondence as issued to clients
through My Aged Care.
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February 2017
2.2 Updated
Changes for assessors:
1. Recommend home care at a specific package level (1, 2, 3, 4, rather than
broad-banded)
2. Recommend priority for service and view system generated priority for home
care service, as priority for home care becomes a delegate decision.
Changes for delegates:
1. Approve or not approve home care packages at a specific level and priority for
home care services
2. Issue an Approval or Non-Approval Letter to the client (letter updated to
reflect changes to specific package levels, priority for home care services and
client’s seeking services status).
3. Completing a Support Plan
3.1 Goals and recommendations
Recap - The ‘Goals & recommendations’ tab is where you will record the client’s
areas of concerns, goals to address their concerns, any services or general
recommendations, and any care type recommendations. As Home Care Packages
are care types delivered under the Aged Care Act 1997 and require delegate
decision, they are added here using ‘Add a care type for delegate decision’.
3.2 Add a care type for delegate decision
For Home Care Packages, the ‘Priority of this care type’ determines the ‘Priority for
home care service’. Priority for home care, along with the approval date, will
determine the client’s place in the queue for home care.
The priority will default to ‘Medium’ for Home Care Packages. For all other
care types requiring delegate decision it will default to the latest Priority for
Assessment. Assessors should continue to amend the priority for service, as
appropriate.
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February 2017
If it is determined that a client has a high priority for a Home Care Package,
please ensure that you enter the reason for this determination in the ‘Reason
or comments’ field.
The agreed minimum interim package level must be entered after discussing if the
client is willing to receive an interim package lower than the level that is being
recommended, while continuing to wait for their higher level package. If the client
chooses to wait for a package at the approved level then you can set this value to
the same level as the approval.
3.3 Seeking home care services
Upon delegate approval of a Home Care Package, the client will be placed on the
queue for home care. Their position on the queue is determined by the approval date
and priority for home care. They won’t be assigned a package, however, until they
have indicated that they are currently seeking services. This can be set when adding
a care type for delegate decision in the support plan, and/ or modified after an
approval is granted.
Home Care approval details, including the time spent on the queue and the seeking
services status are shown in the client record under the ‘Approvals’ tab.
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February 2017
From 27 February 2017 expected time remaining on the home care queue will
not be visible. After the initial round of Home Care Packages are assigned
and in use by clients the Department will have a greater understanding of the
expected wait times for clients. The expected time remaining field will not
display any information from February.
If a client is waiting for their approved Home Care Package on the queue and does
not wish to seek home care services, you can record their preference by clicking the
‘Not seeking services’ link as shown in the top red box in the screenshot above.
If the client has been assigned an interim Home Care Package and has not
commenced receiving services, on behalf of the client you can decline their
package and specify their preference to no longer seeking services in a single
step. This is shown by the second option highlighted above.
The next two screenshots below demonstrate updating a client’s preference to set
them as not seeking services.
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February 2017
The client’s position will be retained on the queue. They will not be offered a
package, however, until they have recorded their preference to seek services once
again.
The following screenshots demonstrate the change to ‘seeking services’.
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February 2017
If a client has been assigned an interim package and they do not wish to be
upgraded as higher level packages become available (or their approved
level), the seeking services preference can be used to reflect this. Once the
client has commenced services on the interim package a preference of not
seeking services will prevent them from being offered a higher level package.
Their position on the queue will be retained and if in the future this preference
changes, the client can opt back in to receive the higher level by recording the
seeking services preference.
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February 2017
3.4 Notification of home care correspondence
For those clients that an assessor wishes to monitor more closely, assessors can
elect to be notified of home care correspondence sent to the client. This notification
can be enabled from any tab in the client’s support plan or on the ‘Approvals’ tab in
the client record. This option is only visible if there is a recommendation for home
care.
The notification link will only be enabled if the client has been marked as ‘Seeking
services’ or a home care package recommendation has been made. This is also
available when viewing Home Care Approvals in the client record, as shown below.
Only one person from an outlet can be selected to receive this notification. The
preference is shown below. All assessors and delegates from the assessment outlet
will be displayed in a drop down menu.
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February 2017
These will be displayed in the Notifications tab of the Tasks and Notifications view
and are detailed below
Correspondence ‘Package Assignment Notice’ or ‘Upgrade Notice (Consecutive)’ ‘Extend Response Confirmation’ ‘Seeking Service Confirmation’ ‘Not Seeking Confirmation’ Content Client assigned a home care package Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has been assigned a home care package by My Aged Care. Client has been granted an extension to enter home care Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has been granted an extension and now has until <client package expiry date> to enter into a Home Care Agreement. Client is now seeking home care services Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), is now seeking home care services. Client is no longer seeking home care services Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), is no longer seeking home care services. ‘Package Reinstatement’ Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has had their assigned home care package reinstated by My Aged Care. ‘ Package Reminder’ Client reminded to enter into Home Care Agreement Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has been sent a reminder to enter into a Home Care Agreement by <client package expiry date>. ‘Upgrade Notice’ Client assigned a higher level home care package Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has been assigned a higher level home care package by My Aged Care. ‘Withdrawal Notice’ Client’s home care package withdrawn Your client <Client First Name> <Client Surname> (Aged Care User ID <Aged Care ID>), has had their home care package withdrawn by My Aged Care. All Full details are contained in the client letter which will typically be available within 24 hours. The letter can be accessed from the ‘Attachments’ tab in their client record. 8
February 2017
The notifications relating to home care correspondence will be identifiable against
other notifications, by an exclamation mark, as the screen shot below demonstrates.
The notification includes a link to the client’s record:
3.5 Referral for Services
For home care package recommendations, you will not be able to match and refer
for service until the client has been assigned a package from the queue. On
assignment of a package, a referral code is generated and a letter is sent to the
client instructing them that they can use the referral code to seek services prior to
the take-up deadline.
If an assessor chooses to support the client in this activity, you may have set up your
notification of correspondence settings (as shown in section 3.4). You will receive a
notification of this and you can proceed to matching and referral if you wish. As for all
electronic referrals, this can be found in the client’s support plan under ‘Manage
services & referrals’.
A client that has been assigned a package will look similar to the example below.
You can proceed to matching and referral by using the ‘Find’ button as per current
functionality. For Home Care Packages you are able to search for service providers
by specific home care service attributes including; Special needs group, Specialised
services, Language, Cultural and Religion, Out of Hours service and Case
management availability. This can be done by selecting ‘Advanced search’ when
choosing a service provider.
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February 2017
3.6 Referral codes
The way that referral codes are managed for Home Care Packages enables a client
to change providers without changing their referral code. Against a Home Care
Package in ‘Manage Services & Referrals’ you’ll see a status displayed next to the
referral code. This could be one of the following: 



Active –a client is assigned a home care package and the referral code is
able to be used
Used – an old referral code for a previous approval that can no longer be
used by Client or Service Provider for referrals
Inactive – this status will display if a Client has notified that they are not
seeking services and/or has had an assigned home care package withdrawn
and not replaced or upgraded
Disabled – this status will display once a service referral is accepted the
referral code is disabled and unable to be used by other providers until it is
reactivated
If a client wishes to reactivate their referral code, for example they might be changing
providers, a client or representative can do this via the Client Portal or the My Aged
Care contact centre. Assessors can also perform this function in the ‘Manage
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February 2017
Services & Referrals’ tab of the support plan, item 1 below shows this button. 1
2
Assessors should not use the Generate Referral Code Letter (item 2 above) for a
home care referral code reactivation- this letter will be automatically sent by the
system to the client. Alternatively you can provide the code to the client verbally.
Assessors can continue to use Generate Referral Code Letter for other care types as
usual.
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