Become a licensed healthcare provider (2023)

governance rules

Amendments to the Aged Care Act introduced specific responsibilities for certain approved providers in connection with their governance arrangements. These responsibilities are designed to ensure that suppliers have the right leadership and culture, and that the organization is transparent and accountable, as well as focusing on consumer well-being, safety, choice and quality of life.

These responsibilities relate to participation in the regulatory body, establishment of advisory bodies and other related responsibilities (as defined in this document) designed to improve oversight and transparency and ensure that Approved Providers focus on the best interests of consumers

Both new applicants and existing approved providers must demonstrate an understanding of these responsibilities.

For more information, seeSupplier Governance Responsibilities: Approved Supplier Guideon the Commission's website.

What is a Licensed Geriatric Nurse?

An Approved Provider is an organization approved by the Commission to provide Australian Government subsidized home-based, residential or flexible care services to qualified older Australians.

An organization formally authorized by the Commission to provide care for the elderly is entitled to a grant (a payment) from the Australian Government to provide consumers of elderly care with certain types of care and services under the provisionElder Care Act 1997(Law of Care for the Elderly).

The different types of senior care and services that an organization may be licensed to provide are:

• home care- refer toconsumer manualÖSupplier Manualfor detailed information about this service
• rest home– Facilities for seniors who can no longer live at home
• flexible care– including multipurpose services, innovative care, transitional care and short-term restorative care.

Organizations that wish to provide one or more of the above types of care and services for seniors but are not approved as Commission Approved Providersunreadablereceive a government subsidy for this.

What does an Approved Supplier do?

An Approved Provider is responsible for providing certain types of care and services to elderly care consumers.

Under the Aged Care Act, licensed providers have a number of responsibilities, including:

• be responsible for the care you provide
• Help those who need care make decisions about quality of care
• administer government grants
• Manage patient fees and payments.

Regarding the quality and safety of assistance provided to elderly users, the accredited provider must meet theQuality standards in elderly carein the law of care for the elderly.

What role does the Commission play?

UnderElderly Care Safety and Quality Commission Act 2018(Commission Act), the Commission is responsible for evaluating and deciding on applications from organizations wishing to become an Approved Provider.

The Commission has the power to approve applications that meet all criteria from organizations wishing to provide:

• Starting at home and/or
• a higher level of support for older Australians who can continue to live at home with support and/or
• Care and housing options for older Australians who are unable to live independently at home.

Applicants who are licensed to provide care and services under the Elderly Care Act and therefore licensed providers are eligible for an Australian Government subsidy.

Why do caregivers need to be licensed?

Elderly care providers must be licensed to receive an Australian Government subsidy for the provision of elderly care and services under the Aged Care Act.

The Australian Government subsidizes licensed providers to ensure that the care and services they provide are affordable and accessible to eligible care recipients.

To be eligible to provide Australian Government subsidized care and services for seniors, an organization must meet a number of criteria, outlined below.

To do this, you must continue to fulfill your obligations under the Elderly Care Act.wait one momentits approval of the Australian Government's provision of subsidized elderly care. The Commission may revoke or suspend the authorization at any time if you do not meet the requirements or if you fail to comply with the requirements.

It is important to note that one of the reasons the Commission is revoking accredited provider status is that an organization's application for accreditation contains misleading information. Other reasons include when the Approved Provider ceases to be a company and when the Approved Provider is no longer authorized to approve.

Where can I get information about currently approved providers?

Anyone can register and visit the My Aged Care websitefind an approved provider.

Who does not need to be hospitalized?

An organization need not be approved by the Commission to provide services to older Australians under:

• aCommunity Home Support Program (CHSP)
• aNational Flexible Care Program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

However, organizations that provide elderly care services under one of these schemes (and receive Australian Government subsidies to do so) are still required to provide theQuality and Safety Commission Act, Elderly Care and Standards Act.

Eligibility to be an approved supplier

You must meet these requirements before you can be admitted:

• meet the requirements set out inPart 7A of the Commission Act
• Understand the responsibilities of approved providers under the Elderly Care Act.
• Providing care in accordance with related principles set out in Section 96-1 of the Elderly Care Act, including the Elderly Care Quality Standards.

When evaluating your application, the following aspects will be taken into account:

• You must be a company
• Anyone who is part of the person's key personnel must be suitable to participate in the elderly's care
• Your experience in geriatric care or other relevant forms of care
• what you should know about the responsibilities of approved providers
• that has or will have systems for fulfilling its responsibilities
• that has or will have strong financial management records and practices
• Your fulfillment of financial obligations and other responsibilities as a healthcare provider, if you already are.
• If any person who is a key person of the person has at any time been convicted of a crime or if a person has been subject to a civil criminal order at any time

government organizations

The state, territory, or local government organization does not need to be approved by the commission to provide senior care services. Instead, these organizations fill out aGovernment Notification Formto create a record that allows the payment of grants to your organization.

Although the Commission does not assess the eligibility of government organizations, they still must fulfill the regulatory responsibilities of an approved provider.

What you need to know before applying

Please read the following information before applying to become an Approved Elderly Care Provider. You are expected to have and be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the Approved Provider's requirements and obligations.

read the instructions

It is very important that you read them.Approved Elderly Care Provider Candidate Guide. This will help you and your team fill out the form accurately and provide guidance on what you need to do as an approved Supplier.

Have you ever used the services of a consultant?

You are responsible for the information on your application form and its attachments. Review the information your advisor provided and make sure you understand it. If your application contains inaccurate information, it may not be approved.

For this reason, it is important that you take the time to read our website and publications to ensure that you understand your responsibilities and legal requirements.

Your organization must be registered

If you are not a registered organization or sole proprietorship, you will not be admitted and your application will be void.

Show that you can provide services within the meaning of the Elder Care Act

You must provide us with sufficient detail about your understanding of the responsibilities of an Approved Provider. This means that you should know what is expected of Division 54, Division 56 and Division 63 of the Aged Care Act, as well as the quality standards and principles for elderly care.

Conduct police and bankruptcy checks on each of your key employees

This is mandatory. You must include one of the following documents with your application:

• National Police Certificate (NPC): from a law enforcement agency, or
• National Criminal Record Check (NCHC): by an agency accredited by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, or
• NDIS Worker Assessment Verification

The date on each NPC or NCHC must be within 90 days of submitting your application. HimPolice Certification Guidelines for Elderly Care Providerscontains more information on national police clearance certificates.

Depending on the circumstances of your key personnel, astatutory declarationIt is necessary for each person if:

• Any former or current names will not appear on the NPC, NCHC and NDIS worker screening check and/or
• Citizens or permanent residents of a country other than Australia after the age of 16.

The statement must indicate whether the person has committed a crime, namely:

• violates any law of the Commonwealth or any state or territory and/or
• against the law of a foreign country which constitutes a criminal offense under the law of the Commonwealth or of any state or territory.

They must also provide a copy of any bankruptcy audits performed on each key employee to certify that they are not bankrupt or have been insolvent under administration.

Always use the correct and most up-to-date application form

We update our application forms periodically to ensure they include the latest information and legal requirements.

Please only complete the current application form on our website, we are unable to process your application.

You must pay an application fee for your application to be considered.

Section 23 of the Commission Act allows the Commission to charge fees for providing regulatory services, including evaluating and processing applications for Approved Providers. These fees are listed on ourApproved vendor application fee page.

Submit your completed application form to receive an invoice

When you submit your completed Approved Provider Application, we will validate and identify the care and services you wish to receive for approval.

If your application is valid, you will receive an invoice for the applicable application fee. This process can take 10 days.

Once the Commission has received payment of the application fee, we will confirm this with you and let you know that your application will undergo an initial review.

How to pay your application fee

Payment terms are detailed on your invoice, which will be issued by the Commission once your order is considered valid. The application fee will be paid to the Commission by electronic transfer using the following bank details:

Exemption from Registration Fees

Application fees may be waived if you apply for a permit to provide residential, residential or flexible care and services to seniors under the following 3 conditions:

• intends to provide all or at least 85% of care and services to care recipients located in Modified Monash Model Areas 6 and/or 7, remote or very remote regions, and
• can provide strong evidence of prior intent, and
• Please provide us with detailed information about the services you want to provide in these remote or very remote areas.Application fee waiver application form, which we will compare with your information on your application form.

Read more information aboutModified Monash model(MMM).

To meet the conditions related to areas 6 and 7 of the MMM:

• If you are applying for authorization to provide home care and/or flexible care in a home care setting, you must provide as much of the following evidence as possible:
  • lease or own an administrative or commercial premises within the relevant area of ​​MMM
  • a recruitment strategy for employees in the relevant area of ​​MMM
  • Advertising or promoting services in the relevant area of ​​MMM
  • Letter of intent with communities or community groups within the relevant MMM area
  • Representation on the candidate's board of directors or advisory board of people from the relevant MMM field
  • Involvement of key people in the MMM area
  • a track record of delivering relevant services in the relevant MMM space
  • Evidence from demographic studies or studies of demand for services within the relevant area of ​​the MMM
  • Corporate documents specifying the organization's objectives and target locations/populations within the relevant MMM area
  • Recommendations from members of target communities within the MMM area.
• If you are applying for an authorization to provide residential care services and/or flexible care services in a residential care setting, you will need to provide the above evidence as well as the location of your facilities in areas 6 and/or 7 of the MMM. An exemption is not available for organizations whose registration provides for the provision of these services both within and outside the scope of MMM 6/7.

If you believe you meet these conditions, please complete aApplication fee waiver application formand submit it with your application form.

Apply to be a Licensed Geriatric Nurse

Important information

When completing your application, you are responsible for ensuring that you understand the responsibilities of an approved provider and providing the requested information to allow for a proper assessment of your organization. If you do not, your application may not be approved.

Your application must also be valid and meet the requirements of Section 63B of the Commission Act, otherwise it will be returned to you.

If you submit an application form and make changes to your organization or plans and those changes affect the accuracy of the information provided,You must inform us. You can do this by sending us an email atApprovedproviderapplications@agedcarequality.gov.au

Choose the correct application form

Make sure you are using the correct application form. There are 3 different forms available to apply for a license and which one you choose will depend on what you are looking for.

Option 1: If you are an unlicensed caregiver

Please use this form if you are an organization that is not currently licensed under the Commission Act or the Aged Care Act to provide any type of care. This includes organizations that are funded to provide theCommonwealth Domestic Support Program(CHSP).

If this applies to you, you must completenew application formif you want to become an approved provider.

Option 2 - If you are already an approved provider who want to add or change service types

Use this form if you are an approved provider wishing to provide additional assistance services; For example, when you deployrest homeand I want to bidhome care, I would use this form.

If this applies to you, you must completeExisting Approved Provider Form. You can use this form to demonstrate your ability to provide other types of care.

Option 3: If you are a government organization

Because state, territory, and local government agencies must be licensed to provide senior care services, the process is different.

If you are a government organization, the Commission will not assess your eligibility. However, there is a registration process that you must complete. This is required to create a departmental record so that the Australian government can pay you a subsidy.

If this applies to you, you must completeform of government organization.

Additional Key Personnel Form

This is an attachment to the application forms. You just need to fill them in.additional key personnel formif you need to identify more than 4 key people. This form must be submitted with your application form.

The evaluation process

We follow a four-step evaluation process to determine if you have been approved as a vendor. These steps are described below:

1. Validation

Go to the section of this page entitled “Send your completed application form to receive an invoice” for information on how to pay the application fee.

If you have requested a fee waiver, the integrity review will not begin until a decision is made on your fee waiver request.

For your application to be considered “valid”, it must meet the requirements of Section 63B(2) of the Commission Act. we should be:

• done in writing
• be done using the form approved by the agent
• along with any documents or information specified by the officer
• accompanied by a fee determined by the official.

A validation check is performed to identify these issues. We will confirm receipt of the application fee and verify the form information and documents you have attached. Requests that do not pass this check will be returned to you. You will be notified in writing and will not receive a refund of the application fee. This process can take up to 10 business days.

If your request passes this stage, you will be notified in writing.

2. Initial assessment

The initial assessment is a more detailed examination of your order, for example to determine whether all of the documents you have mentioned or those mentioned on the order form are included.

We review your organization's filings with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the ASIC filings of all your key employees, including company directors and board members. If you provide care under another Australian Government subsidized plan, your compliance record will also be reviewed by the appropriate authority.

The first stage of the assessment allows the Commission to determine if any information is missing or unclear and if further information is needed to process your application.

Your request may be deemed invalid at this stage or we may send you a request for information disclosed in Section 63C of the Commission Act. Additional fees apply.

A request for information tells you what information you need to provide before your application can be forwarded for review. This can often include additional information about your key people or when a financial document is incomplete and pages are missing to understand your financial situation.

Important details to know

Your responses and documents must be easy to understand and contain enough information to allow us to assess your suitability, including how you will operate your service on a day-to-day basis. A fee is charged for each request for information sent to you.

If you do not provide the requested information within 28 days, your application will be withdrawn. You will not receive a refund of fees paid.

Alternatively, we may decide that a decision can be made based on evidence provided by you prior to this step. Therefore, a request for information is not necessary.

The initial review process can take up to 10 business days.

3. Formal evaluation

Once your application passes the first stage of evaluation, you will be notified by email. At that point, the 90-day period begins under Section 63D of the Commission Act to make a decision on your application.

The next step is a thorough evaluation of your application against the eligibility issues set forth in Section 63D of the Commission Act.

A senior advisor will review your application and write a recommendation to the delegate.

If the Lead Evaluator determines that further information is required to allow a proper assessment of your suitability and to complete the Delegate Recommendation, an Information Request will be sent to you and you will be required to pay an additional fee.

A request for information attempts to clarify the information you provided in the request and states what information is needed and why it is needed to assess your eligibility. If you do not provide us with the requested information within 28 days or you have not requested an extension of the deadline, your application will be withdrawn and you will need to resubmit it. You will not receive a refund of fees paid.

The statutory period ends at this point and recommences when the requested information is received.

4. Decision and Termination

The delegate reviews the lead reviewer's recommendation, discusses it with the lead reviewer if necessary, and decides on the outcome of your application. Pursuant to Section 63E of the Commission Act, a written decision will be sent to you within 14 days of the decision.

If the decision is a rejection, you will be given a reason. This will tell you why your application was not approved and what review rights you have.

make a decision

You will be notified of the outcome of your application within 90 days of receiving an email from the Commission informing you that your application has passed the first evaluation phase.

If we request additional information during the formal review phase, we will make a decision within 90 days of receiving your response.

if approved

We'll send you an approval notice outlining your next steps in the process.

If you are not approved

You have 2 options if we don't approve your request:

• reapply
• request a new exam.

reapply

If you apply again, you must complete a new application form. You must consider the reasons why you were not admitted as stated in your written notice. It is highly recommended that you address these reasons and add new information showing why you believe you meet the eligibility criteria.

You must also pay an application fee.

Request a reconsideration

You may request reconsideration of a non-approval decision pursuant to Part 8B of the Commission Act.

To request reconsideration of a disapproval decision, you must submit a written request within 14 days of receiving the written decision.

Reconsideration Requestsmust be presentedreconsideration@agedcarequality.gov.au. Please add ' in the subject lineDirector's Reviews and Reconsiderations: Request for Reconsideration under Commission Act s74K'.

When processing a request for review, the Commission will appoint an official to carry out this work, different from the person who made the original decision.

If you choose to email us, your email must:

• tell us why you are applying
• address specific areas that we have identified as reasons for failure
• add any evidence you would like to see included.

Possible verification results are:

• we stand by the decision, or
• we vary the decision, resp.
• we reverse the decision and replace it with a new decision.

If we do not respond within 90 days, the original decision will stand.

If the original decision stands, you can request a review by the Administrative Court of Appeals.

Administrative Court

You can appeal a review decision made by the Commissionersubmit an applicationbefore the Administrative Court.

To apply to the Administrative Court of Appeal to review the decision, you must:

• written request
• within 28 days of receiving the decision
• pay the registration fee.

For more information, seeAdministrative Court websiteor league 1800 228 333.

Contact

We recommend that you read the information on this web page before contacting us as it will provide you with all the details you need to make an inquiry.

If you need more help, please emailApprovedproviderapplications@agedcarequality.gov.au.

If you would like to ask a question, provide feedback, request a release, or raise a concern or complaint, pleasecontact us.