SA home care providers urged to stop gouging the elderly

Elderly South Australians are being hit with staggering amounts in home care admin fees. See how much each provider charges in fees here.

South Australian in-home aged care providers are slugging the elderly up to $1000 a fortnight just in management and administration fees, sparking urgent calls to protect the state’s most vulnerable citizens.

The Advertiser’s analysis of nearly 60 providers reveals a shocking disparity in fees across the state, where there is no government regulation to stop price gouging, causing many elderly people to go without their required level of help, or move into a nursing home.

Nuriootpa-based care provider Barossa Village has been identified as the state’s most expensive organisation for management fees, charging $997.92 a fortnight for elderly people with the most complex needs.

The fees are double the median price for care providers in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

But Barossa Village chief executive Simon Newbold argues their hourly fees for care are much lower than most providers.

“Our fee structure is very different than most as we incorporate many services within our fee structure that other providers charge separately at a high hourly rate,” Mr Newbold said.

“I believe we provide more hours of service and better client management than many other providers to our clients in a broad regional area.”

The SA provider with the lowest administration fees, Adelaide Quality Care, charges just $295 a fortnight for Level 4 packages, which provides the highest level of care under the federal government’s home care system.

Adelaide’s biggest three not-for-profit providers – Anglicare, Resthaven and ACH – are among the organisations with the highest charges.

Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie, whose Mayo electorate has one of the oldest populations in the country, will hinge her re-election campaign on fighting for the elderly.

When parliament resumes next month, she will lobby MPs across the entire floor to support her Bill that would cap the level of administration fees providers can charge.

“Because there is such a lack of regulation by the federal government, it just opens the door for rorting,” Ms Sharkie said.

She said problems with home care fees were leaving some elderly South Australians with no choice but to move into nursing homes.

Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie, who will make elderly rights a key election issue this year, has introduced a bill in federal parliament to cap home care administration fees.

After The Advertiser presented its analysis to the federal government, the Health Department expressed concerns about “any excessive” administration fees.

“We expect home care package providers to offer real value for money – and for the delivery of care, rather than any unjustified administrative or management charges,” a department spokesman said.

“While the government does not regulate such charges, it expects charges to be justified and fair, with the maximum possible amount in a home care package budget going to direct service delivery.”

The Health Department is conducting its first review into adminsitrative charges and is expected to release its report in March.

Depending on their package, elderly Australians can get up to $52,377 a year in government funding to go towards their care.

But the exorbitant fees charged by some providers carve out massive holes in their packages, forcing the elderly to dip into their own nest eggs just to survive in their own homes.

Barossa Village charges $623.70 for staff to spend just four hours a fortnight to manage a resident’s home care plan, which involves designing a package.

The organisation charges an extra $374.22 per fortnight for the “ongoing administrations and organisational activities with ensuring the smooth delivery and management” of the package.

Coromandel Valley resident John Munden, 79, said he lives on a Level 2 package with another provider and was charged more than $330 a month in administration fees.

Coromandel Valley resident John Munden says he is being ripped off by his in-home aged care provider. Picture: Matt Turner.

Mr Munden, whose superannuation has dried up, said the fees meant he couldn’t afford a $3000 inclining chair he desperately needed in his home.

“The reason there are no funds is because these crooks are gouging the (elderly) all of the time,” he said.

“Not only am I getting ripped off, the government is getting ripped off as well.”

Anglicare general manager Graydn Spinks said home care recipients had “the right to choose who they get their service from and when it should be provided”.

“Our energies are put into delivering the best quality care to meet the needs of those we serve,” he said.

Resthaven chief executive Darren Birbeck said his organisation’s package management charges had not increased for three years.

“Many people receiving high level care have multiple service visits, seven days per week,” he said.

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