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Funding + pricing
The money, base and window named
AN-ACC prices, the mandatory quarterly financial reports, IHACPA determinations and the survey data beside them: aged care’s money, reported from the documents. Where two datasets disagree, we publish both and say why, because the difference is usually the story.
The second Support at Home price summary arrived three months late. Care management’s $30 bottom end is gone; most other prices barely moved
The January to March 2026 summary, read against the first: 32 of 73 medians unchanged, care management’s bottom quartile up from $30 to $120 an hour, five prices gone. Every price in it was charged before the first summary was published.
28 October 2026
Support at Home quarterly budgets rose about 0.2% from October for nurses' award wage increase; the department says proposed nursing price rises need participants' agreement
Every ongoing quarterly budget rose 0.196 per cent between the 1 July and 1 October schedules: $5.39 at classification 1, $39.22 at classification 8. It arrived in October because quarterly budgets had already been issued. Before a provider raises its price for nurse care, it must discuss, explain and get the participant’s agreement.
10 October 2026
Hotelling supplement remains $22.15 a day for now; IHACPA estimates a $5.81 daily everyday living deficit where homes received no extra or additional service fees in 2023-24
Nothing moved on 20 September: the supplement, and the most a resident pays as a hotelling contribution, stayed at $22.15 while the basic daily fee rose to $68.93. IHACPA’s estimate, built on that hold, shows a $0.18 surplus across all homes and a $5.81 deficit where homes had no extra or additional service fee revenue.
9 October 2026
Small homes’ registered nurse supplement increased about 7.5% in major cities on 1 October and 2.5% in medium and small rural towns; remote amounts unchanged
The monthly amount for homes averaging 50 or fewer residents rose by a different proportion in each location band from 1 October 2026, and not at all in MM 6 and 7. What a home now gets, and the step at 25 residents.
8 October 2026
Funding + pricing
From 1 January 2027, a newly built aged care home can be paid $30 a day for each low-means resident, for up to 25 years
Two new capital supplements in the Aged Care Rules: $30.00 a day for homes built from 1 November 2025 and $15.00 for homes that grow their operational beds by 40 per cent, paid for low-means and respite residents. Applications open 1 December 2026, and the accommodation supplement is restructured from 20 March 2027.
7 October 2026
Funding + pricing
The regulator checked 25 Support at Home providers on pricing and paperwork. Four were fully compliant
The Commission’s January to June 2026 review found 32 per cent of the providers met the price publishing requirements and 36 per cent the rules on service agreements, budgets and monthly statements. Three did not fix their problems in the agreed time, and one is under investigation.
6 October 2026
Funding + pricing
The AN-ACC price is $303.19. It rests on costs from 2023-24, indexed 19.6 per cent
The government took IHACPA's recommendation to the cent, and the number is built from 2023-24 cost data indexed by 19.6 per cent. We checked the derivation: it lands within seven cents of the published price.
2 October 2026
Funding + pricing
From 1 October you cannot be asked to contribute to the cost of showering or dressing. The tool for checking whether prices moved runs about seven months behind
From 1 October personal care moves into the clinical supports contribution category, and the department's own fact sheet says you cannot be asked to contribute to clinical care. The same fact sheet promised close monitoring of any price movement and a National Summary of prices each quarter. The second edition, for January to March 2026, arrived on 27 October, about three months after the July date the first gave.
30 September 2026
Funding + pricing
The quarterly snapshot of aged care’s finances stopped from February to September. The annual report did not
Its six editions from November 2024 ran on a 139-day clock, never more than 109 days apart. Then nothing from 17 February until the two missing editions arrived together on 8 September 2026.
18 August 2026
Funding + pricing
The government published what Support at Home providers actually charge. The gap between them is the story
Care management runs $30 to $150 an hour between the quartiles; house cleaning runs $100 to $117. The spread sits in clinical and allied health, exactly where a participant can least judge value.
4 August 2026
Funding + pricing
The evidence base behind aged care’s new price says the funding model’s own relativities need a rethink
200 homes, 12,537 residents and 355,830 days of care, with direct care time measured by Bluetooth. $430 a day on average, $768 in the most remote homes, and a recommendation to reassess the AN-ACC weights themselves.
28 July 2026
Funding + pricing
Is aged care losing money? The two scorecards disagreed in July. The Government’s has since turned the survey’s way
61 per cent of homes at an operating loss, said the industry survey; 64.5 per cent of providers profitable and improving, said the whole-of-sector snapshot. Its next two editions, published 8 September 2026, have 62.7 and 60.9 per cent profitable.
18 July 2026
Funding + pricing
The price that funds every aged care bed is now $303.19. Here is the gap that came before it
The anatomy of the $295.64 AN-ACC price, the framework that has no number in it, and the consultation that feeds the year after next. What providers were budgeting against until the $303.19 price arrived.
18 July 2026