Self-Managed Home Care Packages in Australia – All You Need to Know

A self managed Home Care Package (HCP) in Australia can provide you with greater flexibility and choice over the care services that you’d like to receive. What are some things you should take note of if you’d like to self-manage your HCP?

What is a self-managed Home Care Package?

A Home Care Package (HCP) is government-issued funding that older adults can use to access care assistance to keep them living at home. It is a step up from the Commonwealth Home Support Program funding, which is used by older adults for more basic, sporadic at-home services.

A Home Care Package has different levels of packages and funding that can be granted to older adults, depending on the complexity of their needs. Usually, the funds from a HCP will be sent directly to your chosen care provider, who will manage the funding on your behalf by organising a care plan for you and ensuring you have access to the services you need. All the budgeting and mental heavy lifting is done by them! However, self-managing your funds means that you are in charge of handling all the money you receive, and paying for services yourself. This means you become responsible for deciding what you spend your funding on, how much of it you use for each service, as well as the tangible spending of this money – like paying invoices.

What are the advantages of a self-managed Home Care Package? 

The greatest advantage to self-managing your HCP is the independence and autonomy over finances that comes with it. Managing your own funds, planning what services you need as well as who delivers them, and being in charge of the accounting involved can be an excellent way to stay in control of your home, and your life. Some older adults lament relinquishing control and autonomy as they age and become less independent, but keeping in charge of what you need extra help with can be empowering. Taking on the mental challenge of managing your own funding can also be a helpful way to keep those math and critical thinking skills sharp!

Managing your own fund also means you have more freedom over who and what you employ to help you at home. You have greater choice in employing external contractors outside your main care provision company, as well as extra equipment or assistance you may need. Furthermore, you won’t have to pay the fees associated with a provider managing your funds. A care providing company will usually charge you extra to manage your funds as well as providing their services. These fees can add up over the months and eat into your available funding. By managing your own funds, these fees are non-existent.

What are the disadvantages of a self-managed Home Care Package?

The main disadvantage to a self-managed HCP is that it can get time-consuming and complex. On a financial level, managing your funds includes selecting your own provider, allocating funds to each service, deciding how much to pay, and then actually paying them using invoices or online systems. This requires good math and budgeting skills. Lots of payment to providers also happens online, and so an apt use of technology is usually required. From a cognition point of view, assessing your own needs in order to determine how you allocate your funds is an important step of self-managing. This can only be done with sound cognition and insight. Therefore, a disadvantage of self managing is that it cannot be done if you require the services due to even a slight decline of cognition.

Things you need to be prepared for if you self manage your Home Care Package

Commitment of time

Organising and managing your own HCP funding can be time-consuming. The process of budgeting, paying invoices, and managing your money will become quicker overtime, but understand that depending on how often your provider, or providers, bill, you will need to attend to invoices and budgeting often. Certain options for paying your providers may take more time – like paying over the phone – and others will be faster, like using online banking. Setting aside time on a certain day each week and making it part of your routine to pay providers and double check your invoices and accounts will make you time efficient when managing this funding.

Ability to recognise when your care plan needs reviewing

It’s important to recognise that by self-managing your funding, you are ultimately in charge of deciding what care you need, how often, and when these things need revision or changing. Engaging a trusted loved one to be your soundboard on when it might be time to upgrade or increase services could be useful. This is because it may be difficult to relinquish more independence or accept that you need more help – as it is for everyone! Being aware that your care plan will need reviewing as you age is an important step to responsibly self-managing your funding.

Make well considered judgements about your own risk and safety

As you age, your cognition may decline. This may happen some time after you’ve decided to self-manage your funding, but it’s an important change to consider that might happen in the future. Having someone you trust to alert you if they believe it’s time to stop self-managing or engage in some extra help is important as you age and continue to receive funding. At the end of the day, it’s about your safety, and it can be hard to assess how safely you are living in your home if some cognition is different to how it was when you started self-managing. It’s important to be realistic and mitigate this situation in advance, so you can continue to live life on your terms, in your own home!

Directly choose and roster care workers

This can be the best part about self-managing: that you are in so much more control over who you choose to assist you maintain independence at home. Depending on your care provider, you may be able to specifically link in with and choose who you want to provide your care. By self-managing, you are also able to employ others to care for you as independent contractors – that is, they don’t need to be employed by any company. This means you can have someone from your community assist you if you already have a rapport built with them.

Be objective when making decisions about your care

Needing more intensive care, or care more frequently, can feel like you are losing your independence and autonomy. However, self-managing your funding and care provision means you must be responsible for objectively viewing your needs to remain independent at home. After all, that’s the whole point of funding – to keep you safe and independent in your own home! It can be hard to assess your own needs as though you’re a third party, but trying not to be subjective when you’re deciding what you need help with in the home is an important part of self-managing. Considering you won’t have a case manager who can objectively assess your situation for you, you have to play that role!

Monitor and manage a simple budget including managing invoices

Budgeting is an important skill for many reasons, but unfortunately, not one that is innate in all of us! If you have struggled in the past with keeping a budget, perhaps meet with a family member or someone you trust to help you go over a realistic budget with the funds you’ve been allocated, first. It’s important to carefully consider your prioritisation of care needs, then how much each shift of care provision may cost, and crunch the numbers to make sure it’s all within your allocated budget. You are always welcome to use your personal money to employ more care – but many are not in this fortunate position, and getting an invoice for more than you expected and not having enough funding to cover it is never pleasant!

Review a bank statement and identify if anything looks incorrect

Before you begin self-managing, you should familiarise yourself with how to pay providers using online banking, everything an invoice should have in order to be processed, and how to identify if there are any mistakes in the invoicing process. Invoices for independent contractors should include their personal details, ABN, the service provided, at what rate, and what length of time. You should double check that the math and pricing is correct. Similar invoicing may happen with companies that provide their own workers, but payment could also be set up automatically if your care provision is the exact same each week. It’s your responsibility to check that any automatic payments are clearing each month!

Keep records and receipts for the services, care and products you purchase

Have an organisational system in place before you start managing – whether that is a folder with physical invoice receipts that you have printed out, or an online folder where you keep digital copies of important information. You should keep all invoices separated into ‘paid’ and ‘unpaid’ to make sure you don’t miss any payments, and set a reminder in your calendar for when your funding is due. This can help you manage what you need to pay each time you receive your funding – and keeping copies helps you in the future if any discrepancies show up over the year.

Pay invoices with a debit card, online or over the phone

Being savvy with technology is paramount to self-managing your fund! Rather than a provider managing your funds and paying your care workers, it will be all up to you! Depending on the care workers you employ, you may need to pay invoices via bank transfer, by using your debit card, or speaking to someone over the phone. Being able to navigate your bank account online and access your email will be imperative. If you’re a bit rusty online, get someone you trust to guide you through for the first few times to make sure you can do it independently from there on out.

Resolve disputes regarding payments and services

You should have the confidence and means to advocate for yourself if anything goes astray with the care you receive from your provider, as well as the payment process. Self-managing your fund also means you become your own advocate in case anything goes wrong, as you won’t have a provider to manage and advocate on your behalf. Asking someone you trust, like a family member, to help mitigate any future disputes is a good idea if you’re starting to self-manage. Remembering that you need to assert your own needs during this time is paramount to receiving the best quality care as you self manage.

Tips on choosing a home care provider

When you self-manage your fund, remember, you don’t have to stick to one provider. However, if you find one you like that can offer diversity of assistance, you may like to stick to them to streamline the process of self-managing. When it comes to finding the right provider for you, you can use online tools to help navigate finding a care provider. Consider a care provider that allows you to self-manage while also providing a holistic healthcare service, with providers that can assist you in many areas of care, like personal care, medical care, transport, and accessing the community. It’s important to choose a provider that has staff that can offer this breadth of service, so that you can use trusted professionals to cover all aspects of what you need a hand with, streamlining the process even further, and keeping you living life on your own terms. Learn more about engaging Homage with your self managed home care package.