Cate Swannell

The NDIA favours appointing a single lead organisation to deliver or contract NDIS support coordination services across each region from July 2028, under proposals that could also overhaul eligibility, service levels, and provider payments.

The provider says an agent has cut a six-hour daily home care administration task to about 15 minutes, while another can find and allocate replacement workers.

Legislation establishing a permanent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged care commissioner will also hardwire temporary measures used to keep the new Aged Care Act operating and make another 13 sets of technical changes.

The AMA has raised concerns that Medicare Urgent Care Clinic commissioning may have favoured large or external providers over established local general practices.

The group that helped convince the DoHDA to preserve the Commonwealth Home Support Program wants an immediate $700m funding injection and a three-year plan to lift annual spending to as much as $6 billion.

The order comes as scrutiny intensifies over the automated systems used to assess and prioritise older Australians for care, and whether promised new Commonwealth safeguards will have the force of law.

Hear that? It's the sound of a deadline whooshing by. Dr Monique Ryan has called on aged care minister Sam Rae to restore human oversight of aged care assessments, saying a promised three-month review has still not reached his office.

Opal HealthCare has refunded or credited almost 350 residents after scrutiny of its Higher Everyday Living Fees, as the government moves to tighten the rules around what providers can charge for.

We don't need to look as far as Denmark for a model that keeps older people at home longer, because a little-known veterans program is already doing it here.

The department behind the government's prediction that 44,000 older Australians will drop private health insurance under its rebate reforms has conceded it cannot predict how many will downgrade their cover instead.