FicusBridge and Insights42 merger ‘an obvious choice’ for its leaders

Three of the aged care sector’s most experienced leaders have joined forces as the specialist funding and care minute management advisory firm, FicusBridge, merges with Insights42, a governance and reporting leader. 

The combined full-service advisory firm will continue to operate under the FicusBridge name. Founder Dr Tanvi Dalal told Hello Leaders the time was right for the companies to come together strategically. 

“The purpose of starting FicusBridge was always to help aged care providers eliminate operational inefficiencies that impact financial sustainability. We started with the most obvious one, which was revenue and care minute management,” she shared. 

“In the last year, we have grown very fast. It was time to expand the service offering and launch a new tech product we’ve been working on. 

“Joining forces with James [Price] and Bret [Duckers] at Insights42 was an obvious choice given the alignment of our solutions, mission and work ethic.”

The merger’s timing is impeccable. After the Aged Care Bill passed through parliament in November, the sector is on track for a suite of new laws and legislation in 2025. 

FicusBridge is well-placed to assist providers. Its leaders have extensive experience from roles at Mirus Australia, Estia, PwC and Encore Care and are ready to overcome inefficiencies and fill knowledge and resource gaps. 

“There are a lot of repeatable processes that are done manually and the people who undertake these tasks are usually the clinical nurses. Their time would be spent so much better if it was directed towards direct care, supervising staff, talking to residents, looking at complaints rather than data entry or checking two different portals,” Dr Dalal added.

“That’s what we really want to do: minimise the time spent in different documents and systems. Keep the complexity on our end and provide something simple, easy to understand and actionable to the person on the floor so they maximise their clinical time with the residents. 

“This helps with the care minute targets. The entire industry is short-staffed. We need to maximise the existing resources and then look at outside solutions. Innovation and technology have been successful in other industries and we want to bring that to aged care.”

Strengthening understanding

Mr Duckers and Mr Price co-founded Insights42 this year with the strategic merger capping a rapid rise for the governance and reporting advisory group. Much of their work entailed supporting aged care boards and management by providing a robust, repeatable framework for reporting that helped them understand the most important facts and figures.

With reporting requirements increasing alongside strengthened aged care quality standards, care minute quotas and new quality indicators, the two firms recognised they would be complementary. As Mr Price told Hello Leaders, ‘We thought, why not do it together?’ 

FicusBridge’s merger with Insights42 allows the strengthened organisation to deliver services across four key pillars: 

• Professional Advisory Services, including board reporting and corporate governance
• Operational Consulting, focusing on process excellence, service optimisation and analysis
• AN-ACC Consulting, specialising in funding normalisation, care minutes optimisation and AN-ACC education 
• Board Advisory and Reporting Services

Mr Price said that by providing a suite of services under the one FicusBridge banner, providers won’t have to adapt to new, unfamiliar requirements on their own. 

“You’ve heard many times anecdotally that people are leaving the industry because it’s becoming more complex. That’s because it’s a challenge to understand what’s required when and how,” he explained. 

“Using a hotel analogy, if you go somewhere like the Marriott or Hyatt they have a playbook and everyone knows what they have to do. Aged care doesn’t necessarily have that. It has access to funding and guidelines to stick by, but the how isn’t articulated as consistently across every provider.

“They all have their own different flavour, which I think is great from a service differentiation point of view, but under the surface, everything needs to run the same. Strong foundations make the business efficient and ultimately more sustainable.”

Mr Price added that FicusBridge aims to act as a shared resource for the industry to help providers adjust to new regulations and requirements while also interpreting the new Aged Care Act. 

Meanwhile, the sector faces rapid growth and expansion with a growing older population to provide unprecedented aged care demand. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare projects that older Australians will comprise 18% of the population by 2035, up from today’s 16%. 

The incoming cohort – and many already in aged care – will be asking for higher-quality services and providers must have the resources to deliver. 

“As we transition into more and more baby boomers coming into the industry, many are going to contribute to their accommodation and everyday living costs. The expectations of those baby boomers are going to be higher,” Mr Duckers said.

“Providers need to ensure they’re maximising their offering and making some money on that side of the business.

“We’re trying to make sure it’s a sustainable business but the resident is always number one. Everybody is doing this to look after residents and you need to be financially sustainable to achieve that.”

To know more, you can contact the FicusBridge team at [email protected]