When people exit your home care service
A person exits your home care service when they:
- move to a location where you do not provide services
- do not want to continue receiving home care
- change to a new provider
- no longer need care
- have passed away.
You also may exit a person from your service if:
- you cannot care for them in their home with the resources you have available
- an Aged Care Assessment Team finds that their needs would be better met with other services, such as residential aged care.
If a person exits your service you must:
- return unspent funds in line with managing unspent funds
- advise Services Australia through aged care online claiming.
Find out what else you need to do if your care recipient is changing home care providers.
Exit amounts
An exit amount helps to cover the cost of administration when a person exits your care.
If you choose to charge an exit amount, you must:
- publish the maximum amount you charge so people can see it when they search for services on My Aged Care
- report your maximum exit amount in the My Aged Care service provider portal
- keep copies of all your exit amount reports
- discuss and negotiate the exit amount with a person before they start receiving care
- if they agree to an amount, include it in their home care agreement.
If you choose not to charge one, you must still publish an exit amount of $0 on My Aged Care.
You cannot charge an exit amount to care recipients who leave your care from 1 January 2023, even if the care recipient previously agreed.
How exit amounts are paid
You deduct the exit amount from the person’s unspent funds that you hold (see managing unspent funds).
If you do not hold unspent funds for a person when they exit care, you must absorb any cost related to their exit.
An exit amount is not a type of care or service. You cannot include it in the invoice amount to Services Australia when claiming.
The amount you can deduct
A person’s exit amount must not be more than any of the following:
- your published maximum exit amount on My Aged Care when the agreement was signed
- the exit amount stated in their home care agreement
- their unspent funds that you hold.
Legislation
For full details, see Division 3A – Responsibilities of approved providers of home care – unspent home care amounts and exit amounts in the User Rights Principles 2014.