Home Care Package (HCP) providers must issue each care recipient a monthly statement showing their available funds, how the funds are being spent and the amount of unspent funds.
Previously, providers needed to include the total provider-held unspent funds for current and previous payment periods in the monthly statement.
From the September 2022 payment period, you must split out the unspent funds into the:
- Commonwealth portion of provider-held funds
- care recipient portion of provider-held funds, and
- home care account balance.
To prepare providers for this change, the Department published a Better Practice HCP Monthly Statement Template earlier this year. The template supports you to improve the overall quality of your monthly statements, making it easier for care recipients to understand and make informed choices around use of package funds for their care. The template will be updated shortly to reflect that these aspects are now mandatory.
A Provider Guidance document is also available, which gives a detailed explanation of the better practice template and how to use it effectively.