Who knows what’s going to happen from February 2017? No one has a crystal ball however if you’re a new provider, you will have no pre-conceived ideas as to how you run Consumer Directed Care which may be an advantage.
At the moment, most providers I have spoken to are currently charging consumers the following:
- Administration fee, anything from 15% to 30%
- Case management fee, anything from 10% to 30%
I don’t believe these types of fees will exist eventually, however I’m not saying things will change immediately with the introduction of the new legislation. I’m just saying changes will happen, especially with new players coming into the market and the onslaught of new technology developed to introduce efficiencies and reduce costs.
For new providers, the most important financial advice I can give you is:
KNOW YOUR COSTS
If you haven’t worked these out, you’ll probably lose money. Your charges should be based on your costs plus your required margin.
DETERMINE WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO CHARGE TO CONSUMER
Are you going to charge a Daily Fee which is currently based on a maximum of 17.5% of the Basic Single Pension? If yes, consider the amount of additional resource required for billing and debt collection and discussions with consumers as to why they have to pay this when they have a huge amount sitting in their “Unspent Funds balance”. You might want to just charge “additional contributions” if the funding doesn’t cover the amount of services they require/want.
Are you going to charge an Administration fee? If yes, what will this be based on? Are you going to charge a Case management fee or maybe you might just charge this out the same way you would charge for a supplier service? Are you going to add a margin onto your external supplier charges? It’s not unreasonable especially with all the compliance work that is associated will providing a service eg. Police checks, insurance coverage etc.
DETERMINE THE SOFTWARE YOU NEED TO SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS
You have to take into account what system to use for:
- Consumer on-boarding
- Client Management
- Financial Reporting
If you already have systems in place, will they be adequate to provide what is needed? You have to consider the data you need to collect, how you manage that data and in what system and what documentation you need to provide. They are the basic questions but then there is all the detail to consider such as staff rostering, scheduling of services etc.
If you’re interested in discussing your Consumer Directed Care challenges or require a demonstration of Care Collaborator, software specifically developed for consumer on-boarding, then please contact Debra Ward at Care Collaborator via the web page: www.carecollaborator.com.au, email debra@carecollaborator.com.au or mobile 0438 020 728.
