What you can charge
Care management charges must be reasonable and justifiable. This means they must provide value for money and consider the effort and resources it takes.
You must publish prices for care management as a dollar figure, so care recipients can easily understand and compare prices. You can publish a different amount for self-managed care recipients.
You cannot charge care management as an:
- hourly charge
- hourly charge on top of the base care management charge.
You should consider lowering care management charges to ensure value for money if the services you provide reduce because a care recipient’s:
- capacity increases
- care needs reduce
- circumstances change – for example, if they have increased support from their representative(s) or family, or they choose to self-manage.
When you can charge
You can charge for care management at a fortnightly or monthly rate.
You must include care management as its own item in a care recipient’s monthly statement.
If a care recipient leaves your care midway through the month, you can still charge the full agreed amount for the entire month.
You cannot charge for care management in a month where the care recipient has ceased care for the entire month, such when taking temporary leave from their package.
Price caps
We have capped care management prices, based on what package level the care recipient accesses.
The maximum amounts you can charge are:
| Home Care Package level | Daily maximum care management charge | Fortnightly maximum care management charge |
| Level 1 | $5.80 | $81.20 |
| Level 2 | $10.20 | $142.80 |
| Level 3 | $22.21 | $310.80 |
| Level 4 | $33.66 | $471.24 |
We have set these prices at a maximum of 20% of the package level. They will increase with the basic subsidy 1 July each year (see Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements).
The price caps are not the target price for these services or an indicator of what we consider a ‘reasonable’ price.
Find out more about the price caps introduced 1 January 2023.
Monitoring compliance with price caps
If you do not meet requirements, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission may take compliance action.
The My Aged Care Service and Support Portal prevents price entries above set caps.
We actively monitor and review that providers are meeting requirements, including providers:
- with charges over the caps
- that raise their charges to the caps
- that implement cost shifting measures.
We will investigate issues raised in regular engagements with peak bodies, advocacy groups and care recipients, and may contact providers for clarification.