New regulatory requirements for aged care providers.

The Commonwealth Parliament passed the Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No 2) Act which amended the Aged Care Act 1997 and other legislation, which took effect on 1 January 2009.

The amendments include:

  • A clarification of the range of people who are an approved provider's 'key personnel' to ensure all board members are included, as well as any other person who has authority or responsibility for (or significant influence over) planning, directing or controlling the activities of the approved provider.
  • Linking approved provider status to the allocation of places, so that an applicant that is successful in seeking approved provider status will not become an approved provider until places are allocated or transferred to it. Approved providers who did not hold any places at 1 January 2009 have until 1 July 2009 to obtain places or their approved provider status will lapse.
  • Assessing an approved provider by reference to other approved providers with common key personnel to ensure that corporate structures cannot be used to prevent the Department of Health and Ageing considering the care provision performance of related entities and deal with them on a group basis.
  • New regulations concerning the outsourcing of care provision by approved providers and regarding changes to management arrangements.
  • Enabling the transfer of provisionally allocated places in exceptional circumstances.
  • Treating unregulated lump sums in the same way as accommodation bonds for the purposes of the Accommodation Bond Guarantee Scheme.
  • An obligation to notify the Department if a resident is reported missing to police.
  • Reducing reassessments of persons by Aged Care Assessment Teams.
  • A requirement for all staff to undergo police checks.

Aged care providers must familiarise themselves with the new regulatory requirements.

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