Industry News

A survey of older Australians has highlighted growing frustration with Support at Home, revealing challenges around waiting times, complexity, provider availability and out-of-pocket costs.

OPAN’s CEO Craig Gear warns the IAT’s human override could recreate the bottleneck it’s meant to fix. With three changes in weeks and Minister Rae unable to confirm trigger criteria or timeframes, boards need to start managing the internal exposure themselves.

This new cross-setting framework gives aged care leaders an evidence-based blueprint to measure quality across the entire continuum of care, helping organisations bridge the gap between health services and residential settings to deliver truly integrated, person-centred outcomes.

While the headlines have focused on allegations surrounding additional service fees via HELF, the more important question for boards and executives is whether the sector has fully understood what the new Aged Care Act is asking providers to become.

The Senate has backed a bill to restore assessor override to the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT). Whether it becomes law or not, providers are already working within the gap between funding decisions and responsibility for safe care.

Outgoing Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown tells a Senate inquiry that Support at Home’s assessment algorithm, means-testing design and co-payment structure are driving older Australians into costlier residential care. And warns the budget isn’t the problem – the administration is.

When 642 providers have become the new normal and consolidation still accelerating, the question boards should be asking isn’t whether consolidation can be stopped. It’s whether the leadership inside their organisation is built for what comes next.

Retirement villages aren’t a lifestyle product: they’re health infrastructure. Daniel Gannon makes the case that without planning reform and supply investment, the pipeline crisis feeding hospital strain and aged care pressure will only deepen.

Tim Lawless says Australia’s ageing population is creating unprecedented demand for retirement living – but delivering enough homes may be the sector’s greatest challenge.

Full villages, growing waitlists, and residents who can’t access aged care. The sector’s top operators are navigating simultaneous pressure on every front — and the leaders who’ll survive it are the ones willing to have honest conversations now.