Update: Over the past 3 weeks, the Federal Government has made two announcements related to AN-ACC funding and HELF/HELF-transition arrangements for residential aged care providers. These announcements have unresolved elements with strategic implications and a commencement date of 1 October 2026. In this environment, we feel it is prudent to defer the webinar until the transition has finalised. If you would like to be informed of the new date please let us know and we will be in touch once confirmed. Contact: editor@insideageing.com.au
In this guest post from Stephen Rooke and Jason Howie, Directors at Pride Aged Living, they examine whether aged care providers are strategically prepared for reform, looking beyond compliance to the business model. They outline key questions around residential accommodation revenue, Support at Home margins, pricing, utilisation, workforce models, capital investment and growth; and what boards need to know before making decisions.
Next week’s webinar will unpack these issues and more, providing practical insights to help providers assess their position, identify the gaps and make better-informed strategic decisions.
Providers have spent the past year updating policies, systems and processes. That work has a deadline and regulatory obligations. The business model questions underneath run on a longer clock, and in many organisations they are still a work in progress.
These latest Insights from Pride Aged Living set out what an organisation needs to have in their strategic plan before it can decide anything.
Insight: Residential aged care by Stephen Rooke
If care funding contributes little beyond the cost of care, the return for maintaining buildings, refurbishing rooms and replacing facilities comes from accommodation and everyday living revenue.
The figure to establish is your own: what those two lines must contribute each year, in dollars. Every pricing and capital decision runs off it.
Three questions follow. Is this an unused pricing opportunity, or a market with limited capacity to pay? New prices typically apply to new residents, so how does a two to three year lag sit against your capital commitments? If pricing cannot close the gap, which structural choices remain? Read more…
Insight: Support at Home by Jason Howie
Systems built to acquit a package were never designed to show margin per client day.
Low utilisation may reflect client preference, contribution concerns, workforce shortages or gaps in care planning. Each has a different fix. Can your reporting tell them apart?
The same discipline applies to price and delivery. Do prices carry the full cost of travel, supervision and administration? Where delivery is brokered, what visibility do you hold over margin and quality? Are care management activities producing claims you can support?
A provider building an internal workforce faces different demands from one coordinating brokered services. Both models work. The risk lies in running one while the systems and rostering were built for the other…Read more.
What boards should take from this
Three questions, and the ability to recognise a complete answer: what is the gap in dollars, which options are realistic, and how much time before the options narrow.
Growth deserves the same scrutiny. What would being a larger organisation achieve, and which existing weaknesses would it carry forward at a larger scale?
In next week’s webinar, Stephen and Jason will compare what they are seeing across residential aged care and home care, and which gaps matter first.
You’ve updated the policies. Have you updated the business model?
Thursday 24 September | 1 til 2 pm AEST
The live session will allow for questions and is priced at $180 plus GST per organisation for unlimited registrations.
A video recording and slide deck will be shared for ongoing reference.
