Do you or a family member receive home care funded by the government?
Well, get ready for some big changes thanks to government enforced competition and new technology – and they are very good changes.
From February 27 next year – exactly five months from now, the government is introducing Consumer Directed Care (CDC). This could be called ‘consumer control of care’ because for the first time you will now control the money the government provides to support you at home.
This is only part of the good news. Because you control the funding, people trying to supply you with services now have to compete harder – a lot harder.
The better traditional services have adapted fast with technology. And new service providers are offering far more choice, alternative prices and a better experience.
This will save you money and create a better outcome in your home. Here is how.
Help at hand
The smarter traditional providers of home care have identified that up to 70% of government funded care actually can be called home services – cleaning, shopping, driving to the doctor. These should be cheaper than say nursing care.
They have created new bundles of services where you can choose the simpler tasks. And offering them online makes everything more efficient.
Check out BaptistCare NSW. They have created a whole new service called YouChoose. It offers packages like Day Tripper for getting out of the house, Home and Garden Enthusiast for garden maintenance plus Comfort and Support for health care. And you can use a tablet or your phone to maintain control.
bettercaring.com.au is an Uber style digital service that matches individual carers and home service workers with clients using computers, tablets or your mobile phone. You can literally scan through 700 carers they have across Sydney and Melbourne and negotiate direct for them to work for you and the cost. It can be as little as $25 up to say $40 an hour.
At the same time bettercaring tracks the hours and the money to give you one simple record. They also insure the workers and carry out police checks.
Five Good Friends
Another service just starting up is fivegoodfriends.com.au. It takes a middle ground. They provide a Community Manager that meets you and together you decide the services you want and choose a local person to work with you. They also check all the workers and provide a fixed rate of $35 an hour.
A great thing with fivegoodfriends.com.au is that all the family can track the time, work done and cost online.
The net result? Cost of home care services are likely to come down and at the same time you, the customer, will have more control on what services you need and when.
And that can’t be bad.
