How to switch aged care providers without losing your funding

People stay with a provider they are unhappy with for far longer than they should, usually because they believe leaving is complicated or that they will lose their funding. Neither is true.

Your assessment and your budget belong to you. A provider is a supplier you have chosen, and you can choose a different one.

Before you decide, be clear about the problem

Some problems are worth raising before you move, because a good provider will fix them. Others are structural and will not change no matter how many times you ring.

Worth raising first:

• A billing error or a charge you do not understand
• A roster clash that keeps putting visits at the wrong time
• One carer who is not the right fit

Usually structural, and a fair reason to leave:

• A different face at the door most weeks, so nobody knows your routines
• Nobody who is clearly accountable for your care, so every call starts from scratch
• Charges that eat a large share of the budget before any care is delivered
• A pattern of missed or shortened visits

If you are in the second list, moving is a reasonable decision, not a dramatic one.

The steps, in order

1. Read your service agreement. Find two things: the notice period, and any exit amount. Both should be written in the agreement you signed. If you cannot find your copy, ask for one.

2. Choose the new provider before you give notice. This is the step people get backwards. Talk to one or two providers, ask them the hard questions, and get a proposed start date in writing. Only then do you give notice to your current provider.

3. Ask My Aged Care to record the change. Your new provider will usually help with this. The important part is that your budget is redirected cleanly to the new provider from the agreed date.

4. Ask for your final statement. You want to see what has been spent, what is left in your budget, and any exit amount deducted. Check it. If a figure looks wrong, ask for a written explanation.

5. Hand over the things that are not on paper. This is the part most transitions skip, and it is the part that decides how the first fortnight feels.

The handover that actually matters

The forms will move. What tends to get lost is everything a good carer learned about you over months: which side you prefer to be supported on, that mornings are slower after a bad night, that the dog needs to be shut away before the door opens, that your daughter rings at ten so visits are better after that.

Write it down before you leave. At Aldera this is what we call One Story, a single record of a person that every carer in their Care Circle reads and adds to, so nobody has to be told twice. Even if you go elsewhere, ask your new provider how they will capture it and who is responsible for keeping it current.

What good looks like in the first month

• The same two to four carers, not a rotating cast
• A named person you can ring who knows your situation without looking it up
• Visits at the times you agreed, and a call when something has to change
• A first statement you can read without help

If the new provider misses those in month one, they will not improve in month six.

If something went seriously wrong

Switching is not the same as complaining, and sometimes both are warranted. Concerns about the quality or safety of aged care can be raised with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission at agedcarequality.gov.au. For anything to do with your assessment, funding or provider records, start at myagedcare.gov.au.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. If you want a hand thinking through whether to move, talk to us and we will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is to stay put.