The Federal Government has cut what amounts to $300M a year in existing funding to residential aged care operators for the next four years.

They have targeted medication and pain management in particular, an area that has been discussed as open to funding claim abuse. This is where the degree of pain can be very hard to identify resulting in massage and heat treatment being prescribed, to be covered by government funding.

The arbitrary payment cut must leave a large number residents in genuine pain without treatment.

The Aged Care Alliance, a peak body representing the major private operators, has commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to study the real impact of the cuts. The Guild’s CEO, Cameron O’Reilly, points out the Government cut aged care funding by $472M in December and removed a payroll tax supplement in 2014 that cost the Guild’s members $100M.

He points out that the most active builders of new aged care facilities were his members but the cuts challenge ongoing capital investment. 76,000 new beds have to be built over the next eight years, or 9,500 a year. We are building less than half that number at present.