Aged Care Funding Instrument - Just How Can it Help The Elderly Population?

Jan 25
16:29

2013

Ramon Allen

Ramon Allen

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With health care, it's correct there exists many sectors that have to be considered. Aged care is definitely probably the most important and a sector that the government needs to focus on.

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With regards to health care,Aged Care Funding Instrument - Just How Can it Help The Elderly Population? Articles it's correct there exists many sectors that have to be considered. Aged care is definitely probably the most important and a sector that the government needs to focus on. The need for aged care and assistance is now apparent more than ever, especially now that the baby-boomer generation is close to their age of retirement. The Australian government recognises the importance of aged care which prompted them to introduce a new funding instrument that specifically addresses this issue, the Aged Care Funding Instrument. This brand new budget allocation tool has been released in order to replace the previous system referred to as Resident Classification Scale or RCS.

Aged Care Funding Instrument or ACFI is a funding tool that was released with the aim of better allocation of budget for the aged population. So in 2008, the Australian government brought out ACFI in collaboration with the Department of Health and Aging (DoHA) and Medicare Australia. ACFI isn't only for the intention of taking care of the needs of the elder citizens but is also helps with making sure that the process becomes easier as it reduces the documents that are needed. Besides that, the program also aims to create a more reliable agreement between the department evaluation officials and aged care providers. In order to make ACFI the ultimate budget allocation tool for the aged population, the government is setting aside a budget of about $5 billion per year.

But in order to make the distribution of funds more efficient and fair, aged care facility residents will have to be examined first. Residents will have fill in a questionnaire form with twelve questions divided into two sections as a their form of examination. With this practice, health care providers will be able to precisely determine the needs of the residents so the proper amount of funds will be given. Since its release in 2008, ACFI has been getting major positive feedbacks and one such feedback is that the level of fairness in terms of aged care budget allocation has been improved. Overall, ACFI reviews have been universally positive.

Due to ACFI, residents who are aiming to apply for their health care needs will not have a tough time because of the more streamlined application process. Using this method, residents will be able to get what they truly deserve without difficulty. To make it even more accessible, Medicare Australia has also made an action by offering a website where ACFI training is being offered. This will help beneficiaries with familiarisation of the tool's procedures and requirements. The training includes basic tutorials on how to register, how to make use of proper codes and how to view payment statements.