Digital Transformation Tech Talk – webinar recording – 31 July 2025

[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Tech Talk’, ‘Digital Transformation for the Aged Care sector – Webinar Series’, ‘Digital Services within Corporate Operations Group’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘www.health.gov.au’, ‘Meeting #25’, ‘31 July 2025’] 

[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen] 

Janine Bennett: 

Good afternoon. Welcome everybody to today’s Tech Talk. We’re back again with the latest digital transformation developments for the aged care sector. Today our Tech Talk series turns 25 but for those that are new to our webinar I’m Janine Bennett. I’m the Assistant Secretary and Engagement Lead for the Department’s Digital Transformation Program and I’ll be your moderator for today’s webinar. It’s great to be back with you. 

Today I join you from Canberra on the lands of the Ngunnawal and the Ngambri people. I want to acknowledge those traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I’d also like to extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.  

A few quick housekeeping notes. If you have connection issues during the session there’s dial in details on your screen and also in your meeting invite. As usual today’s webinar is recorded. We’ll upload the recording to our website so you can watch it again or share it with friends. If you’ve got a spare 36 hours or so you can go back and watch any of our previous Tech Talk sessions on YouTube as well.  

For easy access the links for today’s webinar have already been posted in the chat space so feel free to take a copy of that if it interests you, especially if you’d rather not use the QR codes for links that we provide today. Then you’ll get those links clickable in the chat space. We’ll also email the links out to you after the session. The chat function is now turned off. That’s basically so we can run all of your questions through our Q&A function in Teams. 

As always we’ve set aside time at the end of this session for questions and answers. Please get your questions ready to go. You can type them in the Q&A tab at any time throughout the session. You’ll find that tab at the top of your Teams window. Here at Tech Talk as you know we always like to have a conversation. So when Q&A starts just raise your hand and we’ll bring you to stage. You’ll hear me mention your name before that happens so you get plenty of notice. Keep an ear out for your name. If I do give you a bit of a warning about bringing you to stage just put your hand up so the team can find you in the crowd. Then once we bring you to stage, turn on your mic and camera and it’s as easy as that. You can start having a conversation with the panel. If you’re feeling shy today or if we’re having trouble locating you in the room I’m happy to read out your question on your behalf. And remember to vote up any other people’s questions that you’re interested in from the Q&A tab as well. 

Unfortunately we almost always can’t get through all of the questions that we have in our Q&A. If you don’t get a response in session to your question please know that you’re not being ignored. We go through all of the questions after Tech Talk so that we’re capturing common themes and those high demand questions. Be aware that due to the sheer volume of questions we receive through this forum and through our other engagement channels especially this year, the year of the new Act, it’s not always feasible for us to provide a direct one to one answer for every enquiry. We do however answer as many as questions as we can in the room. Sometimes we’re not able to give you an answer in the moment and need to consult with the relevant subject matter experts to ensure we’re giving you the correct information. For those cases we take those questions offline. For highly specific or detailed questions related to your individual circumstances please include your name in your Q&A so our team can get back in contact with you and work with you to get an answer. For more general questions we do analyse them and send them directly to the relevant business areas. The business areas then use that input to update their existing resources. So you’ll likely see answers to your questions in things like the Support at Home Program Manual or new materials online like FAQs. Where we can we like to ensure that the really popular questions get answered at our future events as well and we have a segment today where we’ll be doing just that. 

Okay. I suppose in short I want you to know in terms of the Q&A we’re doing our best to listen, to capture your concerns and to ensure that you get the right answers from the right people. Keep in mind that our focus here at Tech Talk is on technology and delivery work but we’ll do our best to answer any and all questions we get, although generally our focus will remain on digital. 

Before we get into the agenda for today I would also like to welcome any media representatives who are joining us. We appreciate your continued interest in the important transformation work happening in aged care. If you have any media related questions we do encourage you to direct those to the Media and Events Team at news@health.gov.au. They’re best placed to help you with those. 

Okay. Today’s agenda. Firstly Fay Flevaras returns to Tech Talk today after a well deserved European sojourn. So welcome back Fay. Fay will be taking us through the digital transformation update. We then have Kathy Volkert from Services Australia who’s joining the Department’s Brian Schumacher to talk about the revised delivery plan. Chris Bailie with Melinda Leth will be joining us to do a presentation on the aged care digital maturity research project. And then we’ll wrap up with our Q&A including answers to some of the questions we’ve taken on notice at previous Tech Talks. 

As usual lots to get through so I won’t delay. I’ll hand you over to Fay Flevaras. Fay is the CDIO of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. She’s responsible for driving the Department’s digital transformation agenda in aged care and beyond. Over to you Fay.  

Fay Flevaras: 

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Digital transformation update’, ‘Fay Flevaras’, ‘Chief Digital Information Officer’, ‘Digital Services within Corporate Operations Group’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’] 

Thank you Janine. And yes. I’ve come back to lots of activity as we move towards the 1st of November implementation update, the big date. And I’d like to thank Brian Schumacher for holding the baton in my absence. Everything has continued to move forward at pace and there’s still a lot of work for us to do. But a reminder that everyone has done an incredible job both within the Department and out there to you guys in the sector as we all work to do a huge amount of work at this point and none of us are slowing down as we head towards the 1st of November. 

The deferral of the Act has meant we’ve had to recalibrate our schedule a little bit but rest assured we’re on track. And today I won’t be diving into the roadmap as we’ll let Brian and Kathy continue with that who will take us through some of the detailed rephasing activities and deliverables that we’ve got. And so today I want to take you through some of the new updated resources that we have. 

So there’s quite a few of them and we’ve done our best to actually highlight what’s new versus what’s being updated, starting with resources relating to the new Aged Care Act, with a quick caveat that some materials may still refer to 1st of July as the implementation date as the Department progressively goes through all of that to kind of update some of that detail. First we have the frequently asked questions document covering questions relating to the brief deferral of the start date to the 1st of November. It covers questions like why the start date shifted, what this means for older people and providers, and how the current services will continue in the meantime. There’s also the new learning module for the new Aged Care Act that’s been released which will help you better understand the changes that are being introduced. There are different versions of each module for older people, aged care workers or aged care providers, so really to be able to articulate what it means for the different cohorts and stakeholders. And following on from public consultation there’s a summary of key changes to the new Aged Care Rules which is available now. 

If I move onto some of the Support at Home resources the Program Provider Transition Guide has been updated. It includes things like changes to align the Guide to the 1st of November commencement date, links to the new resources in the resource section and actions where relevant throughout the Guide. There’s also some new actions and updates to content and there’s also changes are clearly marked in the change log at the start of the document to help you find what’s different since you’ve last seen it. And that’s off the back of feedback that we’ve received from you around asking when we update documents to help track the changes so it’s clearly easier for you guys to see what’s been changed. Use this operational readiness for Home Care Package providers and your short term restorative care providers as well. 

The second one there is more Support at Home training materials that have been released. These are new. These are self-paced training modules aimed to help you and your staff get ready for the program. The latest modules include assessment process and service delivery, Service Agreement and care planning, and budgeting and short term pathways.  

And finally we have the Support at Home eKit and it has been updated to include additional reference data including a CSV invoice sample file and non-API service codes and other claim validation data that you guys have been requesting. So this eKit is accessible to everyone from the Services Australia website but we try and package it all up together so you can see one view of all the resources you have across Government. 

We also have a few more for Support at Home. You’ll find a range of new and updated products on the Program Resources page. There’s a new series of fact sheets, frequently asked documents for pricing and service lists and guidance for care partners. This page is regularly updated with all the Support at Home publications so we encourage you to bookmark that one as a favour and come back to it on a regular basis.  

And next if you’re a registered provider there is now a dedicated Support at Home sector collaboration space for you in the existing Community of Practice for Home Care Package Program site. This online hub connects aged care providers with a platform to share insights, access program guidance and help with information about Support at Home implementation. So providers can register for free via the QR code on the screen to join thousands of other professionals in your sector using these resources to navigate their transition as well. So hopefully you guys help each other and learn from each other. 

To wrap up our tour of Support at Home resources we also have Version 3 of the Support at Home Manual which is now available. And you can access a related document at the same link which gives an example of managing participants with pooled care management funding. Again another topic of questions that we’ve received and the resource is now available for you. 

So if you missed the Commonwealth Home Support Program webinar last month or if you want to revisit what was discussed you can view the recording online. The webinar talked about the changes to the program from the 1st of July ’25 and the CHSP provider obligations under the Act including the deeming and registration categories. There is also up next the Commonwealth Home Support Program Service List Mapping Guide. This Guide helps providers prepare for the transition to the new service list that’s going to start on the 1st of November now. And the CHSP 25-27 Program Manual is there for you as well and that provides an overview of the program, the provider’s responsibilities, funding and how the program’s going to change from the 1st of July 2025. 

So really comes down to who you are as a provider or what your service is. And so some of these resources may be relevant for you and others won’t be depending on what service. Next we have resources for the new Regulatory Model. There’s guidance for CHSP providers on this one about the new Regulatory Model and the updates about the deferral until 1st of November, and as well as guidance for NATSIFAC providers which outlines the key regulatory changes that are specific to them and helps providers understand their new obligations as they transition from a grants based arrangement into the formal regulatory approach under the new Act as well. 

Lastly but not least we have some Departmental services that are available for you that we would like to share. The first is the callout to the Department’s two provider capability programs, the Business and Workforce Advisory Service and the Service Development Assistance Panel. So on the first one around the Business and Workforce Advisory Service it’s open to all residential and home care providers and they provide quick, relevant advice on a short turnaround that’s tailored to your business. So you can ask them a question. And that one’s run by EY. So that’s a free resource that you can ring in and ask for some information and advice.  

And then there’s the second one which is the Service Development Assistance Panel and that one’s targeted specifically. If you’re looking to undertake a project as a provider and you are an aged care provider who wants to be in an MMM4-7 area or you would like to move into the First Nations aged care provider area you can access one of the panel members to hop on board to your project and they will help you execute your vision of moving into those two areas that are being targeted. 

So lots of resources available for you. Hopefully you find those useful and please keep letting us know if when you’re reading it you find something. Let us know if there’s more information or clarification required. 

Okay. Moving on to our next update, next agenda item which is our delivery plan update. I would like to welcome Kathy and Brian to the screen. And remember to pop your questions in the Q&A panel and give an upvote to your questions so we know when we come back which of the questions are a priority and we’ll use that to help order the event. Over to you Kathy and Brian. 

Brian Schumacher: 

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Delivery plan update’, ‘Brian Schumacher’, ‘First Assistant Secretary’, ‘Digital Transformation & Delivery Division’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘Kathy Volkert’, ‘National Manager, Aged Care Projects’, ‘Care and Support Division’, ‘Services Australia’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’] 

Thanks Fay. All right. Before we get into the details of the roadmap which you can think of as our technical delivery roadmap or our delivery plan just want to make sure that it’s caveated with the usual disclaimer. So it’s important to note that the timeline on the roadmap is there to support the aged care reform agenda but it shouldn’t be considered an official commitment from Government as that happens elsewhere through other processes that are outside of Tech Talks like this. 

As you’ve probably heard at these sessions previously we make a point of sharing this roadmap early and often to be transparent and open with you about what we’re working on and what we’re planning for. So when changes occur we’ll make sure we keep this updated to keep you informed of where we’re headed. 

All right. So last time we discussed the roadmap I’d mentioned that the deliverables that were targeted for July were moving to November but we still had a bit of work to be done to work through the impacts of what that meant for what we had originally planned for the October releases. We’ve now finished that assessment and I can confirm that the items that are marked with a red dot on them they were the ones that were previously planned for October but they’ll now be also delivered in November. So we’ve been able to package those things up. 

For Aged Care Gateway we’ll see changes occurring to systems and processes really focused on the implementation of the new Aged Care Act and Support at Home, to ensure alignment with legislative requirements and make sure we start to deliver some of the improved client experience. And we’ll also see changes delivered on the Government Provider Management System or GPMS. They’ll cover comprehensive refactoring and enhancements to align with the new Act. Our overarching goal is to continue upgrading GPMS to ensure aged care reforms are supported and ongoing enhancements are delivered to provider and customer experiences. 

Other changes we’ll be making include B2G. So we’ll start to update several of the APIs in that space which include quality indicators, registered nurses, provider management and authentication. You’ll also see in the road map we’ve included Services Australia care deliverables. They’re highlighted in pink down there at the bottom. So we pulled this consolidated view together following feedback from this group and so you can now start to see the Department changes and Services Australia in one place. 

I might pause there and I will hand over to Kathy to take us through Services Australia changes. 

Kathy Volkert: 

Thanks Brian. And just to help everybody on the call I’m talking through the pink bits on that roadmap. So I’m just going to go through them in a little bit more detail than what you can see on there just to help with what the context is behind each one of them. So I’ll just start from left and go to right. So I’ll start with July and August. So the first element there is we continue to work very closely with our Health colleagues on the Aged Care Gateway residual scope, design and build. So we’re very dependent on the Gateway to provide care recipient data to enable us to process payments to providers. So we are currently working through interagency testing with Health at the moment that will be going right through to us doing final sign off of that work. 

We also are providing a lot of support to developers. So we’re running fortnightly webinars for software developers and vendors. They’re continuing to prepare for integration of the software right through to November. So so far we do have ten developers that have actually reached notice of integration and certification and one is soon to be issued the certification, so just progressed through testing. We’ve got eight in testing and 30 who have requested and/or been supplied the test data to progress. So that’s pretty good progression so far for our period of July. We have provided 275 Q&As, frequently asked questions that are published now and a lot of those have come through our webinars, through Health and through our developer liaison team. We have had an API test environment available for software developers since March. So a number of our developers are using that test environment and obviously we’ve talked about a number who have progressed through to certification. 

We also have provided updated specifications on the Services Australia Developer Portal. That was based on feedback that we had received from the sector. So they were updated and supplied during July. And that has included an updated expanded CSV template and an example CSV specification as well to support those vendors using CSV files. 

We also are currently assessing the market. So we did put a survey out to software developers and vendors just to help us identify who would be using APIs and who will be using CSV files so we can tailor our support to the relevant vendors and software developers. So we’re just working through that feedback at the moment and we have got an indication that whilst we still have a certain percentage of software developers using CSV files for November a number of those have indicated they will transition to APIs post November which is good. But we also will continue to support those who continue to use CSV files long term. 

We do have a final release of the APIs into the testing environment for software developers and vendors on the 15th of August and that would be the final enhancements. And it does include some minor enhancements to the existing APIs. That’s 15th of August. I think we’ve talked about those at webinars as well. And we don’t expect any breaking changes beyond that. 

I’m into September/October now. So focus on notice of integration progressing and finalisation. So we’ll continue to monitor the readiness and support for developers. So where we’ve identified that we might have people that have asked for test data and not progressed we’ll start to do one on one support and contact to help with identifying what is needed to help progress that along the way. 

There will also be the Business to Gateway third party code rolled out during September and October. And that will allow vendors to roll that out to providers. Whilst it’s not in a production environment for providers it will enable the providers to what’s called ping Services Australia to confirm the install has been successful in production. So that’s through September/October to ensure that we’re fully prepared for November.  

And then as we move into the November to December period we will have the Provider Portal – so there’s a period from 1 November to 5th of November – and that’s the cut over weekend basically – where the Aged Care Provider Portal will be in read only for that short period whilst we are doing quality checking of the data as it’s moved into production. So we have got a high level cut over plan that talks about the 1st to 5th of November being read only and then from the 5th of November that is pretty much the switch on when all the work starts basically progressing through and the means test assessments will start to be actioned from that point. 

So that’s for the cut over weekend. 

There are a couple of elements on here as well that we’ll reference. So one was update to Services Australia change of circumstances. So in the November release we’ll also be enhancing that. So last year we did release an online claim functionality that allows older Australians and their representatives to apply for a calculation of your cost of care via myGov through our online channel. We’re adding an enhancement to that to allow all aged care customers using the online channel to update their circumstances online. And that’s aiming to make it easier for people and older Australians to keep their information as up to date as possible. That can be made to a person’s income and assets, address and preferred contact details. And customers can choose to make updates via the myGov account, Centrelink online account or Express Plus app. 

And then the final element there, the last one in that final column for us is once we go live on the 1st of November we will have a hypercare period where we will work very closely with Health on basically once you go live managing all the issues and a bit of a joint, everyone’s in the room together type of scenario to ensure we’re working through any issues quickly and responding promptly to any of those. So that will be a period that will go for three months to start off with and then we’ll assess the need post that. I think I’ve covered everything that I needed to cover. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Great. Thank you very much. Brian was there anything you wanted to add on the rest of what we’ve got up there? 

Brian Schumacher: 

No. I think we’ve covered off the high level points there Fay. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. Thank you. So if anyone’s got any questions on that. You can see a very busy time until the end of the year and then we’ll be back next month with a bit more of a view of what next year looks like. But I think everyone’s just really focused on re-baselining until the 1st of November. So thank you both for presenting us with that information. 

We’ll move onto our next agenda item now. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to show delivery content from across our two agencies to you here. And we’ve been working towards this for some time and I hope that people find it useful now that we’ve got the Services Australia piece and the Department’s changes all in one view for you. And so if you have any feedback on that let us know. If you want to see a little bit more detail let us know.  

But in the meantime as we move on another quick reminder to please post your Q&A. We’re working through those. I know that we have disabled the chat and we had some links to the resources there. I’m not sure if everyone can see that now. Maybe have a look and if not please put it in the Q&A and let us know.  

We’re moving now to be joined by Chris and Melinda to share findings around our digital maturity research work. Mel, Chris, over to you guys to let us know how we went. 

Chris Bailie: 

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Aged Care Digital Maturity Research’, ‘Chris Bailie’, ‘A/g Director, Strategic Alignment’, ‘Digital Services within Corporate Operations Group’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘Melinda Leth’, ‘Director’, ‘Strategy and Transactions’, ‘EY’] 

Thank you Fay. And hi everyone. I’m really glad to be here today with our delivery partners for this research project EY and EY Sweeney to share back the findings from the provider self-assessment which was undertaken over the last few months. 

I expect many of you are here today that participated in the survey or perhaps even contributed to the earlier deep dive workshops that helped to refine the maturity framework with EY. So a big thank you to all of you. Our sector partners group got a quick preview of these findings a few weeks ago and they suggested that it would be a good idea to share these at Tech Talk so here we are. 

The key driver for this project has been the Department’s need to better understand our starting point in regard to digital maturity of the sector. Understanding the starting point or our benchmark will position us to work together to improve our digital maturity. So with no further ado I’m going to hand over to Mel Leth from EY as our EY lead for the project. Thanks Mel. 

Melinda Leth: 

Many thanks Chris. And good afternoon everyone. It’s really fantastic to be here today to present the high level findings and results from the Aged Care digital maturity research. And as Chris said the aim of the research was to establish a baseline of what the current level of digital maturity for aged care providers is. So that’s both across CHSP, home care, as well as RAC providers.  

Before we get started I really would like to thank everyone who participated in the workshops, the interviews and the online self-assessment. I know it was a really busy time for everyone with the new Aged Care Act and the Support at Home reforms as well as other reporting requirements. So we really appreciate your input. And your time and effort was well rewarded in the sense that we had an outstanding response rate from the survey which has given us some really in-depth understanding of not only what the current level of digital maturity across aged care is but some really detailed information for different market segments – so that means for different service types, different provider types and geographies – as well as what are some of the barriers that you might be facing and the opportunities for improvement.  

Today we’re really just going to present a snapshot of the research. That will give you a sense of that digital readiness of the sector. Hopefully for those who selected on the survey or the selfassessment to identify themselves you’ve also received your individual benchmark report and hopefully those reports were useful to you in terms of understanding your level of digital maturity not only at a total score but across each of these ten domains and give you a sense of how your reporting or how your progress is against the rest of the sector. 

So in terms of our key questions it really was understanding what the current level of digital maturity is, the barriers and challenges that might be inhibiting providers from improving, what are the core elements that lead to success and some of those key enablers that need to be in place, as well as what might be some of the opportunities for Government to help improve the digital maturity of the sector. 

In terms of the digital maturity framework that we used you can see that’s on screen right now. And we undertook a really robust approach to developing this framework. So it wasn’t just developed sort of in the background. We really made sure that we worked well and collaborated with the sector and tested the framework, whether that was through interviews and workshops, so that we could make sure that this framework was tailored for the aged care context and was agreed to before we started the project. We also had this digital maturity framework reviewed academically so that we could make sure that this was a really robust approach to the way that we undertook the research. 

And as you can see in terms of the framework we also took into consideration some of the materials of the Department whether it was the Digital and Data Strategy, Aged Care Data Strategy that the Department has and a number of other documents to inform what we have here. In terms of the framework hopefully this is reminding you of what the framework is in terms of those ten domains. Lots of different colours there. And these ten domains were broken down into 37 sub-domains and I think overarching within the survey there were over 100 questions that we asked to help us understand that digital maturity. All right. We might move to the next slide. 

So this slide just gives you a really high level overview in terms of how we developed and tested the framework and the process we’ve been through. And as you can see here we had a lot of stakeholder engagement. What was really key to this were those workshops with providers and with different sector partners and MSIA, etcetera. We did 18 provider deep dive interviews. So they were two hours in length to really understand digital maturity for different types of providers across our different market segments. And also gave us a sense to test and refine the framework. And then we put the framework up in terms of online so that everyone could fill that in and self-assess themselves against that framework. 

As I mentioned before many of you selected to receive an individual benchmark report. Love to hear if those reports were useful to you. And then we’ve provided some initial results to the Department ahead of this meeting. All right. Thank you. We’ll move to the next slide. 

As I said we had a really outstanding result to the survey and you can see here that – I’ll break down in terms of some of these results in terms of who responded to the survey. Our response rate was greater than 45%. So 45% of the sector responded to the survey and many of those were from the C suite. So we had 51% of those who responded coming from the C level executive position. In terms of the type of service you can see there that we had a really great result in terms of who responded. We actually had a lot more Commonwealth Home Support Program providers respond to the survey, 81% which was amazing and something that we weren’t expecting, and fewer in terms of the residential aged care. 

You can see there that when I talk about market segments we’ve broken down those RAC, home care and CHSP into further sub-markets. So you can see there for residential aged care we have analysed results comparing those who have got one to two services, three to ten services and 11 or more services. And then we’ve done a similar approach in terms of home care packages, in terms of small, medium and large providers. 

In terms of location you can see that 65% of respondents came from metropolitan areas. And then provider type. This is in line with the broader sector. So 71% were not for profit providers. And we also had providers who delivered specialist services who also contributed to the survey. Thanks very much. We’ll move to the next one. 

So as I said we’re just going to present some really high level takeaways from the survey today. The key point here is that we found that digital maturity varies across each of those domains that I talked about, so those ten domains, as well as within the domains. And it really shows that there’s uneven progress in terms of that digital transformation. 

As I mentioned the results here are very much focused on the broader overarching digital maturity of the sector. These results aren’t specific to the new Aged Care Act. I know that many of you will have responded to part of a survey at the back of the digital maturity survey that asked questions around the readiness for the new Aged Care Act. The results that we’re presenting today are not about that as part of that survey but the front part, the main part. 

So the digital maturity, it is really varied across the sector. It varies within those domains and we also found that the digital maturity varies significantly in terms of the size of the providers as well. So some of the domains where we saw the highest level of variability in scores were around domain 7, so security and privacy, domain 3 which was around frontline worker experience and domain 10 which was innovation and continuous improvement. So in terms of those ones we saw some providers who scored themselves really low and other providers who scored themselves really quite high. And so really showing that there’s a lot of variability across those areas. 

In terms of the domains that received the highest scores, domain 7 security and privacy was probably the one that had the highest score over all of those domains. And we saw really a lot of differences in the way that providers are managing their security and privacy. We have those providers who kept everything in house and developed up cybersecurity strategies and quite substantial teams to be managing their security and privacy. And then we also talked to and heard from providers maybe at the smaller end of town, some of those who have experienced some breaches who have decided to outsource that to third party providers who are specialists in that area. 

In terms of the lowest scoring domain that was consumer experience. So this is about how do you actually involve consumers in the design of your digital tools, how much do they use those tools and what’s their level of interaction with those tools. And this was actually the lowest score across all of the market segments regardless of whether you were a residential aged care provider or home care, large or small. And so this was also the domain that had the least amount of variability within the scoring. 

When we spoke to providers then the response around this was many providers are focusing very much around making sure that their core foundations of their digital maturity and systems is sound. And so that’s really around the middle of the framework. And once those foundations are really solidified then providers are moving out. And so consumer experience was probably one of those areas which is known that it does need to be an area of action for providers and prioritised but it hasn’t been at this point.  

Some providers also mentioned particularly for residential aged care providers that consumer experience given the current cohort or generation of consumers in this space then they have a very low level of digital maturity in terms of consumers and interest in engaging through digital maturity but recognise that as younger members of society come through that that will need to change. We’ll go to the next slide thanks. 

I mentioned before that size does matter. So we did find that large providers demonstrated statistically significant higher average digital scores from the rest of the sector when we analysed that information. In terms of some of those results there we saw large providers really probably scoring higher in a number of domains. One of those was in strategy governance and stewardship. So this is really around whether you have a digital strategy that’s really guiding your investment across your organisation and the level of investment and what you’re actually investing in. And we found that some of the smaller providers mentioned that they struggled to find board members who were digitally enabled and mature themselves and so sometimes that was actually a barrier that was limiting their ability to invest in their digital strategies and their implementation of those strategies. 

Frontline worker experience, capability and capacity. So this is very much around what are the tools you’ve got available for your frontline workers to help improve the efficiency and productivity of what they do on their day to day jobs, how they’re involved in the design of those digital tools and how much they use them. And we did find that larger providers outperformed the smaller providers in this space by a notable margin. And we’re probably seeing that this in some ways is a reflection of a size of business and the ability to sort of invest. And they’re really investing in mobile device use and workflow integration for staff. 

Domain 5, IT operations and infrastructure. Again this was an area that those large providers were outperforming smaller providers. There was in some cases a reliance on third party vendors particularly where there was less sort of integration and support capacity. We also did hear that from some larger providers some of their old legacy systems were actually quite an inhibitor to them being able to move to more fit for purpose and cloud based systems moving forward that were tailored to their current business. 

And then domain 8, information sharing and integration. I think this is probably an area that many providers are struggling with and that’s really around the interoperability of those systems that you have, the sharing of data between those systems that enables you to actually have that real time sort of reporting of information to understand both from your customers as well as the state of the business in terms of finances etcetera and the clinical management aspect. So an area that we found that larger providers were doing better in this space but I think an area that many providers mentioned was a key focus moving forward. 

So I’m going to leave the presentation at these high level sort of key findings for today. And I’ll hand over back to Fay. 

Fay Flevaras: 

[Visual of slide with text saying ‘Q&A Playback’, ‘Fay Flevaras’, ‘Chief Digital Information Officer’, ‘Digital Services within Corporate Operations Group’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’] 

Thank you very much. A big thanks Chris and a special thanks to you as well Melinda for coming in and presenting on those findings on behalf of EY. You guys have been fabulous to work with. As you noticed EY has given the Department the results of the detail and we’re currently socialising those internally with our business partners and other business and our Ministers. The important thing for us is that we now have a bit of a benchmark of the sector wide digital maturity which is fantastic and that we can use that over time to see how digital transformation affects and helps to move the dial for the sector. 

A big thank you to all of you as well out in the sector who participated. It was a fabulous response. And not just in the survey but leading up to the survey, curating the framework and we socialised that with our sector partners and other cohorts that we engage with. Everyone provided feedback on the framework and how we should approach measuring digital in itself. And for those who opted in for your individual provider report we hope that you got something out of it so it’s not just Government collecting the information but that you got to see how you as an individual provider ranked against the benchmark. And so we hope that that becomes a really good piece of work that you can work within your own company or within the provider to start looking at areas that you can improve to help mature your digital maturity. 

So thanks Mel. Before we go onto our Q&A we had some questions from our last Tech Talk that I’m going to kind of go through. As Janine said at the start of the webinar we have more questions usually in a Tech Talk than we can answer to and the questions are many and varied. It’s due to the number of other forums and channels as well so we do try and collate them as best we can to come back thematically. We have set aside some time today to answer some of the more popular questions that have come through of recent and many of the efforts to give you the information back. 

So without further ado I’ll go through some of these questions first and then we’ll call on Carmine and – who else do we have on? We’ve got Brian, I think Kathy who will be joining me as well. So get your questions in the Q&A while I give you some of the answers from previous ones and then I’ll throw some new questions to them. 

So the first question we have is: 

Q: Now that the new Aged Care Act comes into effect on the 1st of November does the Higher Everyday Living Fee also start on the 1st of November? 

And the answer to that that we’ve sourced for you is from the 1st of November this year the new optional Higher Everyday Living Fee will replace the extra service fee and additional service fee. The team will drop into the Q&A – because I think some people are having a problem with accessing the chat – and there’s a link to that that says Understanding Fees for Aged Care Homes, 1st of November 2025 Fee Arrangements and it’s on our website. So hopefully that answers that question. 

The next question. Let me see. 

Yeah. I’ll answer these. 

Q: How will the care management funding work with the Support at Home implementation date of the 1st of November in the middle of the quarter? And will providers have any care management funds in their accounts on the 1st of November or will the funds be allocated at the commencement of the following quarter? 

So I’m not sure if we’re going to bring Kathy to stage for this one. But otherwise – I’m hoping she is. But otherwise I do have some notes here. Kathy did you want to answer that one or did you want me to? 

Kathy Volkert: 

I might need one of my colleagues to answer that one. 

Fay Flevaras: 

That’s okay. I’ll do it.  

Kathy Volkert: 

So I might just check if I can bring in any one of my team. If you hold on for a moment. I’m just messaging them on the side. 

Fay Flevaras: 

No. Not at all. I’ve got an answer for you. I just thought maybe you’d like to – that’s fine. So on the 1st of November 2025 all the notified home care services will automatically become service delivery branches. So that’s the new language under the new Act. And a care management account is created for each service delivery branch and then transitioned HCP care recipients will have their care management funding allocated to their provider’s care management account and this funding will be available for the commencement of Support at Home. So care management funding will be pro rata. It will be a pro rata rate from the period of the 1st of November to the 31st of December and this will enable providers to deliver the care management services from day one of the program which is commencing on the 1st of November. And more information about the care management will be available on the Department’s website shortly. So that’s a very high level view around how that will work and hopefully that gives you some information. And then as soon as more detailed information comes out it will be available on the website and we’ll let you guys know. 

All right. Moving on.  

Q: The CSV for bulk upload did not differentiate between multiple funding sources, ie Support at Home quarterly funding amounts from historical home care packages. Can you please explain how this works as we have to allocate funding for each service, ie assistive technologies, to multiple funding sources but these are unavailable to choose from in your specs.  

I’m going to keep going with an answer on this one. Let me just check with the team. No. That’s fine. I’ll keep going. The answers that we’ve sourced from everyone on these ones was that mostly the Support at Home funding source will automatically be determined by the Services Australia system. The exceptions are when a participant has both ongoing and restorative care pathway budgets. Then the provider will need to specify the respective budget. So when a participant has both the AT short term and AT ongoing budgets then the provider will need to be more specific about the respective budget. Where a participant has the Home Care Package Commonwealth unspent funds and the Home Care account funds then these funds can be used in addition to the quarterly or short term budget and for assistive technology and home modifications. 

So providers do not have to claim for these funds as specific funding sources when submitting their invoices. Services Australia will apply funding based on these two things below. One, when the funds in the quarterly budget, restorative care budget or end of life budget are exhausted the Home Care Package Commonwealth unspent funds and the Home Care account funds will be utilised if they’re available. And so for assistive technology and home modifications the HCP Commonwealth unspent funds and Home Care account funds will be utilised first and if available before any AT-HM funding tiers are accessed. So we will definitely be putting these answers to these questions on a slide and we will be posting all of this information after our event.  

I think I’ve got a couple more going. Thank you. We have a question regarding how is financial hardship managed regarding claiming there as well. I’m getting some thumbs up so hopefully this is all the answers you’re looking for. Financial hardship is managed through specific guidelines that ensure claims are processed with consideration for the claimant’s financial situation. So further information can be found on the Services Australia website for that. So search for ‘Financial hardship assistance eligibility for aged care cost of care’ and that will come up there for you. 

And last but not least on this one. And feel free if you’ve got anything you want to add Kathy. 

Q: If a HCP client has been saving their package funds to purchase a mobility aid will these accumulated funds be lost or carried over if they transition to the Support at Home? 

And the answer to that one is accumulated funds for HCP clients will be carried over if they transition to Support at Home. So that’s fantastic news there. 

Okay. We’ve got some more Support at Home ones. Just going to look to the team in the background. Sorry folks. Making sure that I’m good to keep going with these ones. 

Kathy Volkert: 

I’m okay Fay. I’ve got what I need now. Thank you. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Okay. Great. Thanks Kathy. All right. So I’m going to throw the next question to you then. No problem. So you can see the two on the screen there. 

Q: Can we get the specs of what we need to upload for claiming as this will then determine how we have contracts with contractors, associated providers? 

And also a sub-point within that first question. 

Q: We’re a regional/rural provider who do not have many options for contractors and if it becomes too hard we have been told those contractors will cease doing work for us. 

So what guidance can you give them on that one Kathy? 

Kathy Volkert: 

Yep. So providers and software developers can access CSV sample files and the reference data to prepare for Support at Home claiming. The information is available on the Services Australia website which is the standard website and then we can provide a link in the responses to this as well. But that information is there. There’s also resources available on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website under ‘Support at Home Program Claims and Payments Business Rules Guidance and Support at Home Program Provider Transition Guide’. So there will be a number of links there for you to be able to go to to find that. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. And there’s been a lot of Support at Home questions for you guys in Services Australia so really happy to have you join us to answer all these. There is one there around: 

Q: Will the pooling of the Care Management occur at the NAPS ID level or the Service Branch level? 

Kathy Volkert: 

It will occur at the Service Branch level. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Perfect. Okay. And I did notice in the Q&A chat someone asked about NAPS IDs and GPMS. We’ll get to that one later. Haven’t forgotten you. So moving onto the next one. 

Q: Will the Aged Care Portal have two areas for uploading a CSV claim for HCP as well as the CSV claims for Support at Home? As in the first two weeks in the financial year ’26 there will be two claim types that need to be submitted. 

Any thoughts on that one Kathy? 

Kathy Volkert: 

Yep. So the Aged Care Provider Portal will have functionality to support submission of HCP and Support at Home claims. The final October 2025 HCP claim must be approved before the first Support at Home claim can be submitted. This will facilitate the submission of different claim types during November 2025. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. Yeah. So we really want everyone to focus on closing the year. I was going to say financial year but we’ve moved it from 1st of July now. So close the arrangement in the previous Act and submit all of those claims first and then quickly move on to the new one. 

And also: 

Q: Will grandfathered Home Care Package participants carry forward all their unspent funds at the end of the quarter or is this limited to the lesser of $1,000 or 10%? 

Kathy Volkert: 

So the HCP Commonwealth unspent funds and Home Care account balances will be carried over for transitioned HCP care recipients to be utilised under Support at Home. These funds will be treated as an ongoing balance for use based on payment hierarchy rules. They will not be subject or restricted to a quarterly rollover process. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Thank you so much Kathy. I think I can give you a break from the hot seat. And I say that in jest. This is Kathy’s first go with us guys so well done Kathy. Really appreciate you being here. We’ll move onto another topic and you’ll be back in Q&A. And next up we have GPMS. And someone’s just come off mute guys so can I get – yep. Perfect. Now we’ve got Carmine. Thanks Carmine. You’re going to help us with some GPMS questions. Now you’ve been with us before so welcome. 

Q: Will it be possible to bulk upload associated providers? 

Carmine Spagnoletti: 

For third party organisations for approved providers will automatically transfer to associated providers for registered providers continuing under the same ABN. Reporting of associated providers to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will be done via a change of circumstance form following commencement of the new Act. So once processed updates will be viewable on the Manage your Organisation Portal within GPMS. The Department has passed on feedback that a form enabling bulk update of associated providers would be valuable and continues to consider how over time digital solutions may further assist in streamlining provider reporting. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. Great. And so yes. We do appreciate it when we get the feedback on what’s useful for you guys. So that helps us to identify where you spend most time administrative so we can help prioritise what we do next. There’s another follow up one around: 

Q: How will associated providers be indexed and deduplicated across all the providers they are associated with? 

Carmine Spagnoletti: 

Thanks Fay. So registered providers have responsibility to report associated provider information. Associated providers will be matched based on a unique ABN and matched associated providers will be consolidated and have relationships to each registered provider. Therefore please ensure your information in relation to associated providers or third party organisations is accurate in GPMS. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. And so that takes us to the end of our questions that we had that we took on notice from previous sessions. We really appreciate everyone involved with getting those answers. Now it’s time to look at today’s questions that you guys have posted in the Q&A for us. And I’d like to pass over to Janine to help us moderate some of these because I sometimes answer some of them myself. So over to you.  

Janine Bennett: 

Great. Thanks Fay. I’d like to welcome Brian, Kathy and Melinda back to stage to join Fay. We’ve got a good lot of questions in the Q&A and half an hour to address them. So that’s great. For my team can we bring the slides down please? And I will give a bit of a cue for a couple of our folks in the audience who had some quite popular questions. So Roger Kennedy if you could put your hand up please. Tom Riley if you could raise your hand. Tracey Bucholt if you could raise your hand. And the We Care IT Manager if you could put your hand up as well. The folks in the background will queue you guys up so we’ll bring you to stage in a moment. 

While that’s happening a couple of quick questions. So someone asked anonymously in the Q&A: 

Q: What’s ACCION? 

Good question. So one of our many stakeholder groups, ACCION is the Aged Care CIO Network and we regularly engage with them in regard to digital transformation as well as lots and lots of other special interest groups across the aged care sector.  

We also had a question from Alana Sills who was having some issues with NAPS IDs and was getting a bit of a handball experience between Services Australia and the Department of Health. We want to stop that for you Alana. We probably need a little bit more information to help you. So I’ll give you the email address. Feel free to email us directly and we will get some support people on this question for you so we can put a stop to the handball. So the email address if you’re ready to grab it, it’s DTsectorpartners@health.gov.au. That’s DTsectorpartners@health.gov.au. It will also be on the last slide in the deck. So if you missed that you can pick it up off the last slide in the deck and from your post event email as well. 

Okay. How are we going queuing Roger to the stage guys? 

Speaker: 

We do have Tracey with her hand up Janine if we want to jump in there. 

Janine Bennett: 

Great. Yeah. Bring Tracey along. That would be great. Thank you. Hi Tracey. Welcome to Tech Talk. You had a couple of questions for the panel. I’ll let you take it away. Thanks. 

Online Participant: 

Thanks Janine. Yes. So my first question was when will the AT-HM scheme guidelines be released? Do we have a date on that yet? 

Fay Flevaras: 

Is that the AT-HM guidelines you said? 

Online Participant: 

The assistive technology and home modifications. 

Fay Flevaras: 

That’s right. Just checking because the audio was a bit – sorry. So my understanding – and I think they’re working on them, and no promises. We kind of try and give you a bit of a guiderail here – is around September. So we’ll take that question back and let them know. But that’s I think the right answer I’ve received in the background. So your next question? 

Online Participant: 

So the other question is around submitting a claim invoice. When providers submit a claim invoice how are they going to know which line item is uploaded and then following that is there going to be [1:01:48] bulk upload of evidence and then how will that evidence then be linked to the line item in the claim? 

Janine Bennett: 

It sounds like we’re having a bit of an audio issue. I might actually just post that question in the chat and then – actually I’ll get someone from the team just to post the question in the chat so that Kathy and Fay can see it and we’ll find an answer for that one. We might have to come back to you Tracey. Your audio is just cutting in and out but we’ve got the detail of your question in the chat. So take that one on hold. We’ll be back with you about that one. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Sorry Kathy. The team will just post it in so I can see it. 

Janine Bennett: 

Okay. The We Care IT Manager. I think we might have someone who’s able to come to stage. Hello. Welcome to stage. Are you able to take yourself off mute? 

Online Participant: 

Hi. I’m Chelsea here. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Hello. Welcome. 

Online Participant: 

I’m just wondering for the curiosity, are we all talking about the care plan in the future after the Support at Home scheme is going to have specified numbers for the fund. So I’m just wondering whether we do have a draft of the plan so we can integrate to other development for other programs. So at the moment we’re just thinking about customised for the client care plan, is regarding to going to have the fund allocations. 

Fay Flevaras: 

I’m sorry guys. So can you explain? Sorry. Can you say that again please? 

Online Participant: 

So based on the previous webinars we all talking about according to the new service at home scheme – Support at Home scheme, we’re going to have specified funding for each of the service categories. So for example you have the independent daily support. So I’m just wondering is that going to be specified numbers for each of the service categories? 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. So it would be that specific. I mean on that I think that’s quite a detailed sort of developer request. I think just so you know Services Australia host – do you guys do weekly now Kathy? I’m trying to catch up. 

Kathy Volkert: 

Fortnightly. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Fortnightly. Thank you. And we’ve got Josh there. They do fortnightly sessions for developers to log in. And they could absolutely help you with that detail. There’s a ream of specs on their website as well around specifications that you can look at that says what attributes are mandatory and which ones aren’t. I know we’ve got Josh in the background. I don’t know Josh. Did you want to add anything there? I’m going to put my team to the test now, to bring him to stage.  

Kathy Volkert: 

Unfortunately Josh has left but we’ve got Dom or Darren. So one of my team might be able to – one of those might be able to respond to it. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. So is there any specific information on what date it is? There we go. We’ve got Darren with us. Welcome Darren. You might want to just come off mute and let people know where can they go to get more specific developer information regarding the claiming process for Services Australia?  

Darren Chambers: 

Yeah. Thanks Fay. Can we just kind of backtrack a little bit on that question? So for me it was kind of hard to work out exactly what is the question for that one. I know Tracey you asked some questions as well. I’m happy to talk to those after we finish this one as well. But for that one in particular were you after a certain date for specific information that’s not already available in the Developer Portal in regards to APIs? Is that what the question was? 

Online Participant: 

No. It’s not according to the API. I’m just wondering whether in Services Australia – because in the future for the funding and also allocating for Support at Home. So according to the care plan – because care plan at the moment is generated by My Aged Care. So they would specify what kind of category of the care the care recipient received, and in the future under the Support at Home they should also specify how many hours for this particular service category. I’m just wondering whether this has been integrated to Services Australia regarding the funding. 

Fay Flevaras: 

It has. Yeah. It has. So I’m going to summarise and then maybe if you just want to point them to the developer channel Darren that would be great. Can we have a My Aged Care plan draft after the 1st of November under the Support at Home scheme? Yes. For 1st of November it’s all moving to Support at Home guys. And Darren I know you’re still there with us. Can you just let them know what the developer channel is for them to access to be able to ask their specific technical questions? Do I still have him with me?  

Darren Chambers: 

I’m still here. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. You guys can resolve it offline. 

Darren Chambers: 

Certainly. Look let us add that to the chat if we can. So there’s a dev liaison email address is what we’re talking about right. So certainly there’s a channel with Services Australia that we are currently – and any questions around developers onboarding, notice of integration, working through testing, all of those things, there’s a central mailbox that we’ll drop in the chat. But it’s the developer liaison mailbox. Again I won’t spell it out but we’ll drop it in the chat whoever has access to do that. And I think that’s the channel for direct communications to support what you need moving forward in readiness for 1 November. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Thanks Darren. 

Darren Chambers: 

Thank you. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Thanks We Care IT. We appreciate your question. 

Janine Bennett: 

Thanks very much. Okay. We have an anonymous question and this one will go to Brian.  

Q: With the staged digital implementation going through to February when are we likely to see this reflected on the roadmap? 

Brian Schumacher: 

I expect we’ll be dropping several versions of the roadmap over the next little while as we work through the details. So we’ve finalised November as we were kind of able to present today. I’d expect within the next few of these sessions given how frequently they are we’d be able to drop an indicative kind of view of what the next release might look like and then we’ll just keep iterating as we get more kind of certainty around what’s going in what release. 

Janine Bennett: 

Thanks Brian. I know people are starting to get curious about what happens next. It’s a big hump to get over but once we do we’ll want to know what’s down the track. So appreciate that. And we’ll keep people posted. 

Just another reminder for Roger Kennedy and for Tom Riley. If you’re in the audience and you would like to ask your questions yourself just put your hand up now. In the meantime we had a question from Peter Cooper which I’ll put to Brian as well. The question was: 

Q: When you refer to the Aged Care Gateway is this My Aged Care Service and Support Portal? 

Brian Schumacher: 

Yeah. No worries. That is correct. So when we refer to the Aged Care Gateway there’s a number of systems that underpin that. So there’s a collection of those. But in terms of outward facing, yes that is correct. 

Janine Bennett: 

Okay. Great. Thanks very much Brian. All right. It doesn’t look like we’ve been able to spot Tom and Roger so I might go ahead and ask their questions for them. So the first - - - 

Not Tom and Roger. I’m just chatting with my team in the background to see if we can find them. Okay. So the question from Tom was: 

Q: Will there be a test environment for vendors to test the APIs before production? This would be amazing to have so we can validate our systems. 

Kathy I think this is a question for you. 

Kathy Volkert: 

Yeah. And the test environment for APIs is currently available. It’s been available since March. So if there are people not sure how to access it or use it again the developer liaison mailbox is the contact for that. That’s for APIs. So there is an environment already available for that.  

Janine Bennett: 

Great news. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Absolutely. And just to help people on that one you guys do need to register with Services Australia first to be approved to get access to the Developer Portal. You will not have access to any specifications or a test environment until you’ve registered there first and you’ve passed that. It’s really important. A lot of the APIs we’re talking about here are sensitive especially around payment and claiming and so you do need to identify yourself and be approved before you’ll have access to that. And so that’s why maybe some people are unaware of that and you think there’s no test environment but that’s because you haven’t registered and you haven’t gone through the process. So just thought I’d add that little bit of context of information. No problem Kathy.  

Kathy Volkert: 

Thank you. 

Janine Bennett: 

Great. And while we’ve got you Kathy we’ve got a question about the CSV file. Actually a couple from Roger. 

Q: What are the mandatory variables in the CSV file to upload? 

I’ll give you all questions and then you can answer them in the order that makes sense to you. 

Q: A test environment for the CSV file and what if it doesn’t make sense to us? How do I get my questions answered? 

I think you’ve got some good responses to those. 

Kathy Volkert: 

Yep. So with the mandatory variables we do have an updated spec that was put onto our Services Australia Developer Portal in July which I believe will cover that element. So I can’t personally cover it now but we do have that available. And that’s updated. So that should be in that. With the test environment for CSV files because it’s uploading basically a spreadsheet in the Provider Portal there is no test environment per se. So we recently did that survey to the vendors and software developers and we will be providing one on one support to who needs it. This will particularly apply to anyone new. So if you’re already using the Provider Portal and uploading CSV files you’ve got a process to support you through provider assist. If you’re a new provider or vendor that will come on board from 1 November that’s where we’ll need to provide that one on one support because the provider assist is in production. So we can’t help you in a preproduction environment. So we will provide one on one support. We just need to work through the responses to the survey about who you contact. So we’re just working through is it developer liaison or is it another mechanism to get that support one on one for CSV files, which will answer the second question as well about if you don’t know what to do who do you contact. So we will publish that particularly if it’s different to the developer liaison mailbox. But we will be providing the one on one support to those people that need it.  

Janine Bennett: 

That’s a fantastic service. Can’t get much better than one on one support. Excellent. All right. I might just ask if we can have Juan Ramirez put your hand up and we’ll try and bring you to stage. And then also Talia Hayes. We note you’ve got a question there and we’d like to bring you to stage as well. In the meantime quick question for Fay. The question was – actually I can answer this one Fay. It says: 

Q: Can you please send the links to fortnightly developer sessions? 

Yes. We certainly can. We’ll make sure that’s in the post event email. You’ll definitely get that. Team let me know if it’s in the chat links already and we can steer people there as well. 

Okay. How did we go? Juan do we have you ready? Hi Juan. Welcome to stage. 

Online Participant: 

Hello guys. Thanks for taking the time. Really appreciate that. Anyway so we have as I put in my question multiple sites within our organisation with Carinity Australia. And one of the big questions we still have with GPMS is how are we going to handle the suppliers that work multiple sites? Do we need to upload them per site in GPMS? So if we have a site we have to have the same supplier a time? Or do we have it once at an organisation level? That’s part of the question.  

Fay Flevaras: 

I think this might be a Carmine question.  

Online Participant: 

Yes. And I also put I did not understand anything that Carmine said. Sorry. My apologies. 

Fay Flevaras: 

That’s okay. 

Online Participant: 

It was unclear to me. That’s why it’s important that you have put me on the call. 

Fay Flevaras: 

That’s okay. So is Carmine there with us? Can we bring him up? And I think also it’s really hard to sometimes answer the really detailed questions. So there are channels where you can go and get the one on one guidance and advice. So is he there with us? I think he’s having trouble coming to screen. 

Janine Bennett: 

Yeah. So I’m afraid Carmine isn’t with us at the moment but we can take that question on notice Juan and come back to you on that. Leave that one with us. 

Online Participant: 

Yeah. So I’m new with the organisation. So I just started recently and I’m deep into Support at Home. So that’s why I’m asking these questions. I’ve tried to see all of the webinars but that question I don’t seem to find an answer. Also the other question is are we going to have an opportunity to upload a file into GPMS rather than having to do one by one? So if we have 300 suppliers can we do that upload in one go through an XML, CSV, whatever type of file you require? And if that’s the case are you going to provide us with the file type and the columns that are required so that we can do that? 

Fay Flevaras: 

Thanks Juan. And they’re really good suggestions. I think between now and the 1st of November the ability to do sort of a multi bulk upload is not in our schedule. As you can appreciate there’s quite a lot that we have to get done between now and to be ready for the Act. And so we’ve had to really work with everyone to be quite diligent about what’s in scope to make sure that we can get the Act up and running, which means it’s not always possible to get the most mature and automated solution in place for day one. But thank you for that. We’ll definitely take that back and see where we can fit it in.  

In the meantime you’re new. There’s lots of resources there around GPMS. You can talk to your business team to get access and there’s support guides and videos on how things work. From a developer perspective feel free to reach out to the DT sector partner email address too and we can connect you with the right channel there and slot you in for some one on one. The other thing is we are also looking at that balance between CSV upload versus open APIs. And so our Business to Government Gateway is available there too and you might want to have a look at some of that and see if that – not specifically for the use case you’re talking about there but you can see which APIs are available on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s website and then of course you’ve got Services Australia that also has open APIs for all of the claiming processes as well.  

Online Participant: 

And I have questions on claiming but I believe Kathy has given me some information. So I will be able to go there. But definitely if you can support that question of having it once or seven times the same supplier. Because we’re starting to – we have already done a plan to have GPMS up to date. So obviously you’ve given me an answer. We have to do it manually. That’s perfect. Now the situation is how soon can you answer so we don’t have to enter the same provider six or seven times. 

Fay Flevaras: 

And we’ll definitely take that one on notice and put the answer in the post event. We might see if we can just put it on a slide so that when we put it up on the website you can see it. But thank you so much for your question. We appreciate it. 

Online Participant: 

Thank you. 

Janine Bennett: 

Thanks Juan. Welcome to Tech Talk. We weren’t able to find Talia in the attendee list so I’m going to ask her question on her behalf. 

Q: If we have two service IDs will care management funds be managed separately, eg we can only use them flexibly between participants with the same service ID? 

And that question is for Kathy. 

Kathy you’re just on mute. 

Kathy Volkert: 

I started talking. 

Fay Flevaras: 

And I went to say that you were on mute but then I was on mute while I said that. 

Kathy Volkert: 

It happens in every meeting right. Someone’s got to be on mute. Yes. There will be one care management fund per service ID. You can only use flexibly within that service. Does that make sense? 

Janine Bennett: 

Does that make sense guys? Can we get some thumbs up if people - - - 

Fay Flevaras: 

I think they have access to the reactions. I saw a couple. Yeah. Come on guys. I’d like to see who’s out there. 

Janine Bennett: 

We’re not sure if it makes sense. So if we need a follow up please let me know. 

Kathy Volkert: 

Someone’s got their hand up. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. There’s the raising the hand but right next to the raising of the hand there’s a react button. We could try testing that and see if everyone wants to give us a bit of a thumbs up or a clap. That’s when we know that it’s good as an answer. Otherwise the raising of the hand is so we can see you in the list and see if we can bring you to stage. Okay. Over to you Janine. 

Janine Bennett: 

So we have a question for Mel. And I’ll ask it on behalf of Adele because we weren’t able to find her in the list.  

Q: I haven’t seen the personalised benchmark report for our organisation. We were part of the interviews and I understood that we would get one. 

What do we think about that Mel? 

Melinda Leth: 

Yeah. Thanks Adele. So we’ll follow up on that Adele. In terms of the individual benchmark report it went to – so there were two things that needed to happen. One is that you completed the online self-assessment and the second is that you said that you were happy to provide your information to the Department. And whoever did the online survey will be the person who receives that individual benchmark report. So that’s how it sort of happened in the background. But Adele we’ll follow up in the background and just make sure that there hasn’t been any issues there and we can send out an email and connect with you directly. 

Janine Bennett: 

If you find that you’re not able to locate the person who got the report in your organisation you can follow up with us because we actually may not be able to track you down just from your name. But since you were in the interviews that might help us. But feel free to email DTsectorpartners@health.gov.au and we’ll make sure and follow that up. 

We also had a suggestion from Ken which I thought was really good. 

Q: Would there be value to host a session in the digital maturity benchmark results for aged care organisation board members to help lift digital acumen? 

What do you reckon Fay. It’s a pretty good suggestion. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Say that again. 

Janine Bennett: 

So Ken suggested that we host sessions in the digital maturity benchmark results for aged care organisation board members to help lift digital acumen. So it was one of Mel’s points that if you have a digitally savvy board then you are more likely to be more digitally mature as an organisation. 

Fay Flevaras: 

I like the idea. I’m just not sure how the board would like having Government come into their board and talk to them about digital maturity. We try and share a lot of content but I think maybe that’s something for boards and companies to decide for themselves how they might move forward on some of these things. But maybe a good idea. I don’t know. 

Janine Bennett: 

We might be able to experiment with a video or something. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Maybe. 

Janine Bennett: 

Just to step them through the reports and what they mean. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yeah. That’s a good idea. Definitely to step them through the reports and explain what the different lenses are of a digital foundation, some framework and so forth. That would probably be really good just generically for everyone.  

Janine Bennett: 

Yep. Okay. I think we’re going to have to make this the last question. Yep.  

Q: Will there be an upload functionality for the MAC provider prices? The Commission has made the updates mandatory multiple times in the year. 

So they’re looking for some upload functionality. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Brian I don’t think it’s in our plans between now and the end of the year. It’s like Juan’s other suggestion. But I don’t know. Mavbe I’ve missed that memo. 

Brian Schumacher: 

I’ll just check because I was looking at a couple of questions then Janine and I was just sort of going through what was there. Was this the one regarding the pricing? 

Fay Flevaras: 

Yes. The MAC upload. 

Brian Schumacher: 

Yeah. So just having a look in the background. So we do already have capability available to upload pricing schedules. So I think there is some information available on the website around what providers need to do ahead of 1 November but also post 1 November to make sure those things are current. We can look and make sure we get the links to that information out to this forum. But there are some things that need to be done in that. The capability is there currently. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. There you go. That’s one I didn’t know about. That’s fantastic. 

Brian Schumacher: 

So whether it’s bulk or just a single upload I’m not entirely sure. But definitely there are some things that need to be done ahead of 1 November. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Excellent. Thanks. 

Janine Bennett: 

Thanks so much. Okay. I think we’re going to have to call it a day there. Thank you to our panel. Really appreciate you attending Mel, Brian, Kathy. Welcome to your first Tech Talk.  

Kathy Volkert: 

Thank you. 

Janine Bennett: 

Appreciate your time guys. One last question that we did have I thought I’d quickly answer. So someone mentioned that they jumped on a little late and the roadmap that was shared, they wanted to know if it was a new version or is it available online yet. Just so you know that is a new version of the roadmap. That is the latest, hot off the press release of the roadmap. It will be available online as soon as the Tech Talk information goes up. So within sort of the next week or so that will be available online both in this video and as a separate deck. 

Okay Fay. Well that’s your first Tech Talk since you got back. Welcome. Tech Talk number 25 done and dusted. Thank you everybody for coming along. As always we really appreciate your interest and your participation. There is a post event survey link on your screen. We’d really like to hear your thoughts so please do complete that. It changes how we present going forward. So we like to have your opinions on what we should be including and how we should be presenting these sessions. 

As I just said we’ll be posting today’s recording on our website in the coming days and we’ll email you that link along with the links that were mentioned today. If we get any answers to those questions that we took on notice we’ll include those as well. Please take a moment to register for our next Tech Talk. It’s on the 3rd of September. You can find that link with the QR code on screen, from the list of links in the chat window or by searching ‘Tech Talk’ on our website. 

That’s it from me today Fay. Over to you. 

Fay Flevaras: 

Thank you. And thank you. I did see some of those reactions there. I appreciate the thumbs up and the emojis. So glad to see that today’s session has gone well. It’s been wonderful seeing you again. Kind of missed you folks. I think I missed one. And we want to understand where you guys are up to, what information you need. I know we’ve got a lot to do and we want to keep our fingers on the pulse of the real world experience. It helps us to hear your voice and we’ll be working to help resolve items and questions that come up. 

Have a great day and I look forward to seeing you next time. And thank you very much. Bye for now. 

[Closing visual of slide with text saying ‘Thank you!’, ‘Give us your feedback’, image of QR code, ‘Register for Tech Talk 26’, image of QR code’, ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’, ‘digitalservicessectorengagement@health.gov.au’] 

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