Adding to the aged care sector’s negative critique of the government’s ACFI funding changes to Complex Health Care, respected Chair of Gerontology for the Australian Physiotherapy Association and National Aged Care Alliance representative, Rik Dawson, says “It’s time to say goodbye to ACFI and start thinking about what makes sense”.

The ACFI funding changes that start next January will reclassify what constitutes ‘High Complex’ needs. Currently 44% of residents match this class but this will drop to 13% according to Ansell Strategic. Government funding will drop by $15 a day per resident, which is equal to $5,475 a year.

The government came down hard on ACFI funding because of ‘gaming’, where some operators had elevated residents to a higher need level to get more funding.

One reason given was the need for ‘pain management’. The easy treatment here is massage or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) -  low-voltage electrical current for pain relief.

Physios oversee these treatments. However many physios say this is often not the best approach. Dawson says this only treats pain, it doesn’t address the cause of the pain. “Exercise is the most effective way to reduce musculoskeletal pain”, for instance.

The new Governemnt directions for complex pain management now calls for four sessions a week totaling 120 minutes. Dawson says this is excessive and uses up the residents energy levels. “It will limit the take up of these treatments and it will compromise people’s pain experience and perhaps lead to increased medication”. 

Summary: operators get a funding cut of $5,475 a year per resident while the on the ground experts say the new treatment could do more damage than the old treatment – which wasn’t the optimum either. Maybe it is “time to say goodbye to ACFI”.