TriCare has promised to employ more staff and review its rostering systems in a bid to hit targets.
Eleven aged care providers have been slapped with enforceable undertakings by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for persistently failing to meet mandatory care minutes targets in 27 residential aged care facilities.
Since 1 October 2023, residential aged care homes have had to deliver mandatory care minutes, increasing to a sector average of 215 care minutes per resident per day on 1 October 2024. This includes 44 minutes of registered nurse care.
The worst offender is TriCare, which operates RACFs in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, regional Queensland and one in Melbourne. Nine of its homes – Upper Mt Gravatt, Annerley, Bayview Place, Pimpama, Cypress Gardens, Jindalee, Labrador, Mt Gravatt, and Mermaid Beach – have been issued EUs.
Hahndorf Holdings, which runs facilities in South Australia, appeared on the list four times; as did Aged Care Group in Victoria.
Two-time mentions went to Estia in South Australia, and Wicklow in Victoria. Other providers issued EUs were Ejaz, Farwell, and Menarock Aged Care Services in Victoria, Infinite Aged Care in Queensland, and Manly Vale Nursing Home and St Joseph’s in New South Wales.
An enforceable undertaking is legally binding and sets out agreed actions that the provider will take to meet their care minutes requirements. Examples of actions that providers have agreed to take include immediate recruitment of more nursing and care staff.
Use of an EU by the Commission depends on a provider’s acknowledgement that there is a problem to be fixed, and the likely effectiveness and timeliness of the actions proposed by the provider to address the problem.
The Commission can take the provider to court for failing to implement its EU. Sanctions and financial penalties can be imposed.
“The Commission is being firm and fair with these providers and we are using our regulatory powers to hold them to account,” said outgoing Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Janet Anderson.
“Failure to deliver mandatory care minutes where there is an absence of tangible effort to achieve these targets could lead to sanctions and financial penalties.
“All residential aged care providers are on notice as the Commission will continue to actively monitor, engage with and take regulatory action against providers that persistently fall well short of their care minutes requirements.”
Providers are required to report their care minutes data to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care on a quarterly basis. One of the consequences of receiving an EU is that the provider then has to report monthly.
Providers issued an EU are placed under active supervision due to their significant, unexplained and sustained non-compliance with care minutes requirements.
They were each invited to offer to the Commission an enforceable undertaking to address the non-compliance.
For example, TriCare has undertaken to employ extra nursing and administrative staff to help boost care minutes provided with various deadlines including the end of February and the end of March.
Alternatively, or if an offered enforceable undertaking was not acceptable to the Commission, a non-compliance notice is then issued.
The NCN sets out the non-compliance and specifies the broad actions that the provider is required to take to remedy the non-compliance.
A provider is required to respond to the Commission when issued with an NCN, prior to the Commission’s decision to impose one or more sanctions:
- The provider can demonstrate they have returned to compliance. If accepted by the Commission, there is no further formal regulatory action and the Commission will continue to monitor the provider;
- The provider can detail their remediation process to return to compliance. If accepted by the Commission, a Notice to Remedy is issued and published on myagedcare.gov.au. The remediation process and return to compliance is case managed by the Commission.
If the non-compliance is not resolved following the Commission issuing an NCN, the Commission can then require a provider to agree to certain matters and apply sanctions including:
- suspension or revocation of approval to provide aged care;
- restricting the payment of subsidies to the provider;
- prohibiting the further allocation of places, or revoking or suspending some or all of the provider’s current allocation of places;
- prohibiting the charging of an accommodation bond, charge, payment or contribution.
If the Commission then uncovers evidence that a provider is intentionally working to avoid meeting its care minutes targets, a potential breach of the Aged Care Code of Conduct is investigated. That may attract a court ordered penalty of up to 250 penalty units per contravention.
TriCare was contacted for comment but had not responded by publication deadline.