Published 1st July 2015
Mod.A has just released an urgent briefing regarding of the final release of the Manual, Guidelines and Good Practice Guide for the Commonwealth Home Support Program, with an emphasis on the updated Manual, and how they impact service providers.Today is the commencement of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.
Overnight the Department of Social Services has uploaded final versions of key documents to its website that services need to be aware of and familiarise themselves with. They are: The CHSP Programme Manual; the CHSP Guidelines Overview; and the Living well at home: CHSP Good Practice Guide.
To promote the changes that CHSP will have to Aged Care, as well as other developments such as the My Aged Care Gateway, the department has released a Special Extended Edition of the Information for Aged Care Providers NewsletterThe CHSP Guidelines Overview is primarily directed at and should be read by all service providers. It details fundable activities and eligible populations as well as where the new CHSP is/is not being rolled out across Australia. This will be a key document to reference when DSS commences contract negotiations with each funded service provider. MOD.A is working through this document and members are welcome to contact us if they have any questions or comments.Below is a brief summary of the key points of the CHSP Programme Manual. Please note that all page references relate to the PDF version of the document. The CHSP ManualThe new CHSP Manual details service types. Reference to Home maintenance can be found on pages 41-42 and those for home modifications can be found on pages 43-45.Home Maintenance – key points
Home Modifications – key points
GeneralThe funding of the detailed assessment and design work is something that will be of great assistance (especially as clients are increasingly brought into the decision-making processes) and will assist with costs associated with clients that decline home modifications after a scope of works and costings have been presented to them. We will need to see whether the option to fund OT assessment as part of the service delivery cost will mean that home modifications jobs may be placed on the provider portal in two ways: as a job requiring OT assessment or just as a home modification referral. MOD.A will seek clarification about this and let members know.There are no details about how grandfathering applies to either service type, and this is more problematic for home modifications than it is for home maintenance. MOD.A will continue to work with the sector and seek clarification from DSS about how this is to be applied from now on.FeesChapter 4 of the Manual reiterates previous communications that a CHSP Framework will be developed that outlines principles that service providers can adopt in setting and implementing fees, leading to greater consistency and fairness. All CHSP providers will be informed of the Framework when it is finalised and the information will then be added to the Programme Manual.As noted in our June Newsletter, for the time being services are to continue to implement their current policies. These should be guided by the existing National Programme Guidelines for HACC (see from page 24 – Draft Fees Policy), which in turn references state arrangements with their various schedules and greater detail of what and how to charge.My Aged Care Gateway and provider portalBoth become effective as of today, 1 July 2015. New clients will need to be referred through the Gateway that will be supported by client service officers in call centres. It is anticipated that many people will have their needs identified and be appropriately referred as a result of the assessment done over the telephone, but MOD.A is of the view that where an environmental modification or maintenance is required new clients will need to be referred to the Regional Assessment Service (RAS) to be assessed in the home.The information about the Gateway and provider portal should be known to providers by now, and here are a few key points:
From the scenarios and diagrams provided by DSS we have identified the following: Portal referrals
Direct client contact
It is not clear how non-complex and complex home modifications will be differentiated and placed as referrals on the portal. MOD.A will seek further advice on this. ReportingAs expected, the new DSS Data Exchange reporting requirements will come into effect in November 2015. Until then services are required to report as usual, using MDS. The CHSP Guidelines Overview states that performance indicators based on outcomes (has what was expected been achieved, how well and how much?) ‘may be included in the grant agreement for the grant recipient’ (p. 13) and this may require additional fields being added into existing reporting frameworks. How will this affect services today?The late delivery of the Manual and the transition from HACC to CHSP means there are some major changes that services need to address today:
Home Modifications Australia (MOD.A) is the peak national body that represents home modification providers for the frail aged and people with disabilities for the Home Modification and Maintenance sector and your membership of this organisation will assist you to manage the CHSP transition and plan for a better future and a sustainable service.
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