Aged Care Specialists to donate $70,000 to the ACSA Aged Care Image Campaign at the National Conference

On another note, we are proud to announce our Major Sponsorship of the ACSA Aged Care Image Campaign. For every bed signed up for the Funding Review, Aged Care Specialists is donating $1 to the “Image Campaign”. With your help, we hope to raise over $120,000 for this project which is designed to improve the profile of aged care, industry influence on government and the morale of our valued staff. With over 70,000 beds already on our books we are well on our way to reaching our goal. Thank you for your contribution to our business and indirectly, to the campaign.

What's Coming

Our new database will soon be producing automatic detailed monthly updates to keep you informed of your review status including detailing resident claims submitted and the potential value of claims and ongoing investigations. As much as we would like to provide everyone with this information right now, producing this currently diverts resources away from funding reviews so we respectfully request your patience during this peak period of funding reviews.

Commonwealth Change the Rules Again!

The Commonwealth recently retrospectively changed the evidentiary requirements for back-claims for your entitlements. In my opinion these changes are excessive, onerous and unjust and have the potential to cost our industry millions of dollars in funding entitlement back-payments. For example, among other changes, the authority to prove a deceased resident's financial position for Concessional or Supported status is now restricted to the executor of the will. If a resident had no assets therefore, no need or ability to pay for a will your entitlements are now lost forever even if there was a Power of Attorney or spouse available! There is a glimmer of hope however this internal DoHA ruling is still in draft form (although already in operation) and we are lobbying the Commonwealth to reconsider their position and will continue to do so until they have reasonably reconsidered their position. Internally, we have doubled our telephone investigations team to 8 to redo the retrospective claims returned to us and to cover the additional time it takes to obtain the new evidence requirements to minimise the impact to you. If you would like more information regarding this or wish to gauge the impact on your review or want to help our crusade in any way, please contact me on 1300 419 119.

Commonwealth Deadline Approaches but No Need to Fear!

I wish to reassure you and all our clients that all funding reviews will be completed before the 20 March 2010 deadline. With delays in Medicare claim processing in a number of States, coupled with the Commonwealth changes in evidence requirements in mind; we have expanded our national team to 40 to ensure we fulfil our promise to find and recoup your funding entitlements before they are lost forever.