What you must do
You must:
- charge care recipients the prices in the schedule, unless otherwise agreed. You must include any different prices and the reason(s) in their home care agreement
- 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, before delivering care and services. Document this 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 help them to choose care and services, within available resources, that best meet their:
- goals
- assessed needs
- preferences
- not duplicate charges (for example, do not charge for administration in both the direct service unit price and the package management price).
From 1 January 2023, you must not 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.
You should take into account support available from:
- other government services
- the care recipient’s family, carers and networks
- the community.
Monthly statements
Providers must provide itemised monthly statements to all care recipients receiving a home care package. Statements must show:
- available funds in their package at the start of the month
- an itemised breakdown of funds received and spent during the month
- the amount of unspent funds remaining at the end of the month.
We have a template you can use to prepare monthly statements. Use this template to make monthly statements easier for care recipients to understand and make informed choices about how their package funds are used.
Learn more about monthly statements for home care packages.
Exit amounts
From 1 January 2023, you must not charge exit amounts for when a care recipient transfers to a new provider or exits the program. For more information, see exiting people from home care.