Better health and ageing for all Australians

Aged Care Assessment Teams

Aged Care Assessment Team Reassessment Requirements effective by 1 July

This document explains the circumstances when a reassessment by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) is, and is not necessary.

In this section:

You may download this document in PDF format:

PDF printable version of Aged Care Assessment Team Reassessment Requirements effective by 1 July (PDF 71 KB)

Aged Care Assessment Team - Reassessment Requirements

This document explains the circumstances when a reassessment by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) is, and is not, necessary.

It is important to note this information is divided into two categories that set out the requirements for people that are approved and:
    • Have Not received care; and
    • Have received care

Care Not Received

Acat Approval

Is Reassessment Required?

The client is approved for:
    • High level residential care
No – from 1 July 2009 all current approvals will not lapse.

All approvals made on or after 1 July 2008 – and which were not time limited so they expired before 1 July 2009 - will not lapse.
The client is approved for:
    • High level residential respite care
    • Low level residential respite
No – as above.
The client is approved for flexible care in the form of:
    • Extended Aged Care in the Home (EACH)
    • Extended Aged Care in the Home Dementia (EACHD)
No – as above.
The client is approved for:
    • Low level residential care
    • Community Aged Care Package (CACP)
Yes – if care was not provided within 12 months starting the day after approval.

Or

Yes – if their care needs change.
The client is approved for:
    • Low level residential respite care
Yes – if their care needs change and they require high level residential respite care.
The client is approved for:
    • Transition Care
Yes – if care is not provided within 4 weeks beginning the day after the approval date.
Top of page

Care Received

ACAT Approval

Is Reassessment Required?

The client has entered:
    • High level residential care
No – from 1 January 2009 all current approvals will not lapse if care has commenced and there is a break in care.
The client has entered:
    • Low level residential care
Yes – if there is a break in care of more than
28 days (excluding approved leave) outside the 12 month lapsing period.

Yes - if the first ACFI results in a High Level classification and the provider wishes to claim a high care ACFI subsidy rather than the interim low subsidy.

No – if the resident has aged in place as follows:
  • An ACFI reappraisal is conducted that results in a High Level classification (e.g. on expiry of an existing classification, or a voluntary reappraisal following a transfer, or following a major change in care needs) or
  • a Departmental Review Officer confirms the resident’s ACFI classification during a classification review.

Yes – on transfer if the resident has aged in place and wishes to pay an accommodation charge to the new home rather than rolling over an existing bond.
The client has received:
    • Low level residential respite care
    • High level residential respite care
No – if care was received on or after 1 January 2009 approvals for these types of care will not lapse.
The client has commenced an episode of:
    • Transition care
Yes – if there is a break in care of at least one day after the entry 4 week entry period.

No – if the client enters hospital from Transition Care, concludes their hospital episode and re-enters Transition Care (from hospital) within the 4 week entry period.
The client has commenced a:
    • Community Aged Care Package (CACP) Package
    • Extended Aged Care in the Home (EACH) Package
    • Extended Aged Care in the Home Dementia (EACHD)
No – if care was received on or after 20 March 2008, approvals for these types of care will not lapse.

If the client has received care on or after that date, the client does not need to be in care on the ‘entry period’ lapsing date.

All Types Of Care

Prior to 20 March 2008, approvals for all care types lapsed if care had commenced and there was a break in care of at least one day after the ‘entry period’ ended.
Top of page

Help with accessing large documents

When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:

  1. Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
  2. Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
  3. Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file

Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking) may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is opening and/or lead to system problems.

Help with accessing PDF documents

Get Acrobat ReaderTo view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website.