Charging for Home Care Package services

How to charge for services

When charging prices, you must:

charge care recipients the prices in your pricing schedule, unless otherwise agreed
include any different prices and the reason(s) in care recipients’ written Home Care Agreements
ensure most package funds go to your care recipients’ direct care and services
ensure your care recipients agree to all charges for care and services in their individualised budget before delivering care and services
document care recipients’ agreement to all charges in their Home Care Agreements
act in your care recipients’ best interests, in line with their assessed needs and goals, and as agreed in their care plan
provide enough information to your care recipients to collectively plan out their care and services, within available resources, that best meet their
- goals
- assessed needs
- preferences
provide itemised monthly statements to your care recipients.

When charging prices, you must not:

duplicate charges (for example, by charging for administration in both the direct service unit price and the package management price)
charge care recipients for package management where no care and services (other than care management) are delivered in the claim month – this excludes the first month the care recipient is with you
charge exit amounts when a care recipient changes to a new provider or exits the program.

In most cases, you should charge your published price.

In some cases, you may need to negotiate a different price. For example, where the care recipient has a particular request or need.

You must document changes to these prices in the Home Care Agreement.