Home Care Packages

If you face the prospect of navigating care services for the aged, few things are available to put into consideration. If you are not in the line of residential care, home care packages are one of the main options you have.

These are the packages that allow people operate from homes. They are also government funded like the residential care. There are four different care levels offered by such packages ranging from basic to high needs.

Home care packages, since this past year, should be delivered on CDC (consumer-directed care) basis. This means that the consumer has a wide range of choices and flexibility on using their packages as well as offering an account of how their money is used.

The Meaning of CDC

While it doesn’t sound radical, it shifts the way aged care services were provided in the past. Aged care providers compete for to offer the consumers packages with flexibility. The CDC concept stands in for the longstanding model to give consumers the capability to find the best provider as well as giving control over the provided services. For instance, you can order assistance to accommodate the time when you want assistance to get to bed at night.

The Problem

Under CDC, providers must inform their consumers of how these funds can be available for spending on a monthly or yearly basis. However, this action has brought in the case of having a high management and admin fees. For them to cover the operational and overhead costs, providers must charge administrative fees.

  • High Fees: Case and admin service fees are about 40 percent of the package fees. Competition is the key to ironing such fees.
  • Shortage of Places: Home care packages receive a limited amount of funding through approval processes. Consumers must look for providers whose packages accommodate the night. New regulations are being effected to have the package funds sent to the consumer directly instead of the provider.

How much to Pay

For you to receive the federal funds, you must make contributions. Everyone who receives such packages, no matter the level of packages you have, has to pay some basic fee that is about 18 percent of the aged rate for the pension.

Additional amounts are also applicable for those who earn over a certain amount. You can’t be required to pay over 50 percent of income above the rate of age pension. You can use the Home Care Fee Exterminator to find out how much you need to pay.

How to Spend your Package

Your package needs to be administered through a provider who is approved by the state. While the old system had providers offer service and case management provisions, you don’t have any power to negotiate to choose an alternative provider under the new system. Because consumers will become unbounded over time, they will have an increased capability to choose.

What to Spend your Package on

While CDC was developed to give you an increased capacity to make choices, it doesn’t mean you can use the money on anything. There are four categories of spending. They are advisory services and case management, administration, support and service provision, and contingency. It is tricky to determine how much each service costs because there is no benchmark. This means you must look round to get the most inexpensive deal by any provider around you.

Case Management and Administration

Case management fees were designed to cover the costs of an individualized plan for care. You can receive a reduction of such charges and gain more control over the services while providers will always charge you the management fees. If their response doesn’t satisfy your needs, you can take your business somewhere else.