I’ve recently spoken about the support Mum and Dad received within Dad’s home care package.
I’ll begin to explain what a home care package (HCP) is and how you go about finding a package provider that suits your needs, as well as an introduction to the fees a package provider may charge you.
Funding to assist people to remain at home. 
A home care package is essentially a bucket of funding that is allocated to a client to engage services and support to enable them to remain living in their own home as opposed to having to enter an aged care facility ‘prematurely’.
The funding is scaled to the level of package a client has been approved for (approval occurs from an assessment from an Aged Care Assessment Team or ACAT as these teams are known).
A HCP 1 is the lowest level of funding and HCP 4 is the highest level of funding.
From 27th February last year, a big change in the way packages were allocated occurred.
No longer were packages allocated to providers but rather the packages were assigned directly to the consumer.
But the consumer doesn’t get a great big $$ deposit into their bank account…though getting a package is kind of like winning the lottery when you’re desperate for help.
When you receive an offer of a package.
When your letter of offer arrives from the department, you’ll need to find a package provider best suited to your needs. Signing up with your preferred package provider is called your Home Care Agreement.
The provider does take a fee for administering the package, that is unavoidable but this fee varies between providers.
Without meeting with a package provider and asking them directly about their fees it is nearly impossible to find comparable information as to how much these fees will be.
Prescare, who administered my Dad’s package, charged my Dad approximately 30% of his funding to administer the package.
It is acknowledged that some providers charge 40% of the package subsidy as their administration fee.
Another fee the package provider is entitled to receive from you is the basic daily fee.
The basic daily fee for a home care package is 17.5% of the single person aged pension which equates to $10.32 per day or $144.48 per fortnight.
Not all package providers will charge this fee.
This fee varies between package providers.
The basic daily fee can be negotiated with the package provider.
My Dad was an aged pensioner and Prescare charged him $25 per week for this fee.
Not one size fits all. 
So, as you can see, there is no magical formula or ‘one size fits all’ approach to how package providers prescribe their fees.
My advice is to shop around and ask people about their experiences with providers.
Then meet with a few providers and talk to them, asking plenty of questions and assessing their responses as an indicator of their willingness to disclose and inform you.
Take written documentation away with you and peruse it later, as it’s a lot to take in.
Then, talk to them some more until you’re absolutely comfortable with your choice of provider.
When you’re comfortable with your choice, you’ll be ready to sign your Home Care Agreement.
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