Price transparency
To ensure price transparency, you must:
- publish the common price for each of your services on My Aged Care and your website
- agree on the prices that you will charge each of your participants
- keep your published prices up to date.
Price transparency helps older people and their families to compare the prices of different providers more easily.
You must meet your price notification requirement under the Aged Care Act 2024.
Setting prices
You need to set your own prices for Support at Home services.
Prices must be reasonable
The prices you set must be based on the cost of delivering services. This means that whether a price for a particular service is reasonable depends on the costs you incur to deliver that service to a particular participant.
These costs can include
- labour
- package management
- administration (e.g. human resources)
- travel
- sub-contracting, if applicable
- a margin to cover the cost of capital used in delivering the service.
You cannot charge separate administration or travel fees or claim them from the care management account.
Prices must be transparent
You must publish the prices for all your services on the My Aged Care website. The price you publish needs to be the price that you most frequently charge for that service.
Where a provider has not transparently reported their prices, they may be referred to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) for compliance and/or enforcement action.
Consumer protections
The government is introducing new consumer protections for Support at Home participants. These are in addition to protections already in place to ensure reasonable prices and service quality for participants.
The additional protections mean the government will:
- empower the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to order refunds for services where providers are found to be overcharging, take regulatory action against providers who are choosing not to meet their clear requirement to issue monthly statements, and regular public reporting on investigations and enforcement action
- publish a new National Summary of Support at Home Prices each quarter, showing the median and the range of prices charged by providers so older Australians and their families can see how their provider compares
- building on our removal of out-of-pocket costs for showering, dressing and continence services under Support at Home, have the department and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission specifically monitor the prices of personal care as they transition into the Clinical Care category
- encourage providers to limit the frequency of price increases to no more than two per year, giving older people certainty to budget their packages
- convene a working group with the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN), Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia, Ageing Australia and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to focus on three key priorities:
- establishing a more robust definition of ‘reasonable’ pricing, giving providers and consumers clearer guidance on their responsibilities and rights
- undertaking further consultation on the multi-provider model
- developing further guidance and supports for older people who self-manage their packages.
The government will also provide extra funding to support OPAN to expand financial advocacy, and COTA to provide education and information on consumer protections, including service agreements, aged care rights, and information on how to compare prices. This funding will support older people to understand their prices and get assistance to challenge them when needed.
We’re monitoring what providers are charging
Together with the Commission, we will continue to monitor prices that providers are charging for Support at Home services and take regulatory action where required. This includes any changes in the pricing of personal care services once the service type has moved to the clinical supports contribution category from 1 October 2026.
We are using billing data to monitor what providers are charging for services, and we’re seeking justification from providers who appear to have prices which are unreasonable.
Where a provider’s prices appear unreasonable or are not adequately justified, they may be referred to the Commission for compliance and/or enforcement action.
Providers who have been impacted by monthly statement issues are expected to communicate service delivery information (including prices charged) in a clear and timely way with older people who are yet to receive a monthly statement.
The Commission is responding to complaints and monitoring providers’ compliance with the Support at Home requirements. More information on how the Commission regulates these requirements is available in the Regulatory Bulletin Support at Home Pricing Requirements.
Guidance resources
Support at Home pricing resources
Providers set their own prices for Support at Home services. They must set prices that are reasonable, transparent and clearly explained. These resources provide guidance on setting prices and outline consumer protections.
Publishing prices
To meet your obligations, you must:
- go into every operational outlet under Support at Home in the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal:
- check all active service items for each outlet
- verify your services, if you do not offer a service, mark it as ‘Offline’
- enter standard business hours pricing information, this is mandatory
- check your service delivery area is accurate
- confirm outlet names and descriptions.
- publish your most frequently charged price on your website for:
- all services you deliver and have delivered in the last 12 months
- during all service delivery hours, including standard hours, non-standard hours, weekends and public holidays.
- verify that the price entered in the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal is he most frequently charged price for each Support at Home service you deliver or have delivered in the last 12 months
- publish the most frequently charged price for each service on your website.
Once complete, your service listings will display as ‘Operational’ in the portal with no outstanding alerts or errors.
Your prices are published on the My Aged Care website, Find a provider tool.
Read the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal User Guide for instructions to upload pricing information. The portal is the only approved form for submitting your pricing information.
Prices must be entered directly into the portal, pdf documents or links to webpages do not meet your reporting requirements.
Reviewing prices
You must review your published prices at least every 2 months to reflect the common price you charged for each service.
You must provide us written notice via the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal:
- if you are making any changes, updated service information within 30 days
- if you are not making changes, confirm you have reviewed the information.
Prices in service agreements
You and the participant must agree to any prices charged for services.
You must include in their service agreement a list of prices for the services you will deliver to them. This list can also include prices that are higher than your published prices, but you must note these prices and the reason for the difference.
You may include a clause for regular price increases in the service agreement. The clause must include the date prices will increase, the method for working out the pricing increases and the reason for both requirements.
Agreeing to other prices
You may need to a deliver a service where the price wasn’t known at the time of developing the service agreement. For example, for one-off services or assistive technology and home modifications.
In this case, you must:
- record your process for agreeing to any ad-hoc prices in their service agreement
- agree the price with the participant before confirming the service
- provide the price in writing to the participant and keep a record of their agreement.
For example, if a participant requires a one-off service (approved in their support plan), you could agree the price via email with the participant before arranging the service.
Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme
The price charged to a participant’s fund for assistive technology and home modifications can be no more than the invoiced cost of:
- the item/service
- prescription
- wrap-around services
- administration/coordination services, capped at:
- 10% of the cost for assistive technology or $500 (whichever is lower)
- 15% of the cost of home modifications or $1,500 (whichever is lower).
All costs must be agreed and documented between you and the participant before purchasing.
For more information about the AT-HM scheme.
Transport services
For transport services, if you cannot provide a price before delivering, you must:
- discuss the unit price or price range with the participant
- ensure it will not lead to overspend by managing their budget effectively.
Allied health and nursing services
For allied health, other therapeutic services and nursing services, you can provide a price for distinct time-based billable units for:
- face-to-face (direct) activities
- related indirect activities.
For more information about Support at Home prices for allied health and nursing services.
Median prices
On a quarterly basis, we will publish national median prices for Support at Home services, similar to what we published for common Home Care Package services.
In February 2025, we asked in-home aged care providers what they planned to charge under Support at Home. See summary of indicative Support at Home prices.
Claiming for services
After delivering services, you will need to submit an invoice to Services Australia.
Invoices must outline the:
- units of each service
- relevant unit price
- cost of the product delivered to that person on a particular date.
For more information about provider payment arrangements.
Find out more
Read the Support at Home program manual:
- Chapter 10 (service list and delivering services)
- Chapter 13 (Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme).