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Draft HACC Fees Policy

Information about the draft HACC fees policy

In this section:

Under A New Strategy for Community Care – The Way Forward a more consistent framework for determining fees across community care is being developed.

As a result of this, the HACC Fees Policy is in draft format, but will be reconsidered when the new framework is finalised.

The draft HACC Fees Policy aims to ensure a fair and equitable approach to charging users of the HACC Program, and acknowledges that the overwhelming majority of HACC clients are on a government pension or income support.

Australian and State and Territory Governments have developed this draft HACC Fees Policy after consultation with consumers and service providers.

The draft HACC Fees Policy has Principles and also Explanatory Notes which provide more information to guide State and Territory Governments and HACC funded agencies on the issues to be addressed in the implementation of the policy.

These Principles are –

    1. Inability to pay cannot be used as a basis for refusing a service to people who are assessed as requiring a service.
    2. All clients assessed as having capacity to pay are to be charged fees. This should be done in accordance with a scale of fees appropriate to their level of income, amounts of services they use, and any changes in circumstances.
    3. HACC funded agencies should charge the full cost of the service where clients are receiving, or have received, compensation payments intended to cover the cost of community care.
    4. Clients with similar levels of income and service usage patterns should be charged equivalent fees for equivalent services.
    5. Clients with high and/or multiple service needs are not to be charged more than specified maximum amount of fees in a given period, irrespective of actual amounts of services used.
    6. For the purposes of this policy, solicited donations for services are equivalent to fees and are subject to all provisions of this policy.
    7. Fees charged should not exceed the actual cost of service provision.
    8. Fees should not be charged in respect of services such as information, advocacy and friendly visiting.
    9. The fee charged for a service should be all inclusive and cover all material used in delivery of the service.
    10. Fee collection should be administered efficiently and the cost of administration should be less than the income received from fees.
    11. The revenue from fees is to be used to enhance and/or expand HACC services.
    12. Procedures for the determination of fees, including assessment criteria, should be clearly documented and publicly available.
    13. Procedures for the determination and collection of fees should take into account the situation of special needs groups.
    14. Assessment of a person's capacity to pay fees should be as simple and unobtrusive as possible, with any information obtained treated confidentially.
    15. Consumers and their advocates have the right of appeal against a given fee determination.
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