Mirus Australia survey: 70% of CEOs say their organisation has not started preparing for AN-ACC

Mirus Australia's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Farmer

Aged care consultancy Mirus Australia has today released the report ‘A new era in aged care funding’ AN-ACC CEO Survey, highlighting the sentiments and readiness of aged care leaders towards the implementation of the AN-ACC funding tool that will replace ACFI from 1 October 2022.

The results are surprising in that 70% of CEO respondents claim to have done little or nothing to ready their organisation ahead of the looming deadline.

The results were unveiled in a webinar earlier today that attracted a large audience and an active discussion between aged care providers who are grappling with the changes, as well as dealing with COVID outbreaks and ongoing staffing issues.

Mirus Australia’s ‘AN-ACC CEO survey report’ combines the insights of formal CEO interviews – representing approximately 22,000 beds – with more than a hundred industry conversations conducted over the past six months.

The collection of insights represents a cross-section of the industry: small, large, for-profit and mission-based and across geographies, metropolitan and regional.

Key findings:

Preparedness – AN-ACC ranks in the top 3 priorities for aged care CEOs but behind COVID-19 and workforce• 70% consider themselves to have done little or nothing to prepare for AN-ACC given other priorities and perceived lack of information available to prepare• 75% of respondents are confident in their ability to maintain focus on ACFI (current funding) despite the requirement for transition and pressure on existing resources

Financial impacts – Significant concern that funding will not be maintained• 69% are concerned about maintaining funding levels under AN-ACC until more data is released• 63% believe that their costs will increase in some areas due to AN-ACC, especially in transition

People impacts – High confidence in people but new skills and significant training required• 70% of respondents believe that their people will require significant training which will be both costly and difficult to manage

Process impacts – Little or no progress on planning for new AN-ACC processes• Only 19% of respondents have made some progress towards planning for new processes as details are not yet available and shadow assessments have been variable

Systems impacts – Low confidence that technology will be ready for AN-ACC changeover• Only 25% of respondents were confident that the required change to systems is under control with requirements for systems changes not yet known and dependence on external vendors

Data impacts – Opportunities and challenges in new data models have not been fully considered• 80% of respondents have not fully considered the impacts of AN-ACC on their data with ACFI data used widely in current reporting

“There is a low level of preparedness in the industry towards AN-ACC. Aged care leaders are dealing with a number of significant challenges and while AN-ACC is on their list, for many there is still a perceived lack of information and this is in part what is holding them back from taking decisive action” says Andrew Farmer, CEO of Mirus Australia.

Mirus Australia recommends in its report that aged care leaders start engaging with others in the industry about the transition to finding common solutions and that current plans are adjusted for AN-ACC.

“Whether you’re changing systems, structures, processes or policies – now is the time to consider AN-ACC as part of that change,” Andrew said.

“A data operating model that integrates resident funding, workplace rostering and resident admissions will help providers manage their business at a facility level and this, in turn, will support compliance for star ratings and mandatory care minutes”. Andrew added.

The report can be downloaded at –  www.mirusaustralia.com/an-acc-ceo-survey

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