DHHS Ageing and Aged Care Branch, September 2016
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Background
On 1 July 2016, the HACC Program in Victoria was split between the State and the Commonwealth based on client age. HACC service providers who deliver services to older people (aged 65 and over, or 50 and over for Indigenous people) now have a grant agreement with the Commonwealth Department of Health to deliver services under the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP). Providers who deliver services to younger people (aged under 65 or under 50 for Indigenous people) will continue to have a service agreement with DHHS under the HACC Program for Younger People (HACC-PYP).
Full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) also began on 1 July 2016 in the North East Melbourne Area (NEMA), comprising the municipalities of Whittlesea, Nillumbik, Darebin, Banyule and Yarra. Central Highlands will be the next area, from 1 January 2017. As the scheme rolls out over the next three years, a proportion of people aged less than 65 who are currently receiving services funded by the Victorian HACC Program for Younger People will be invited by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to test their eligibility to participate in the NDIS.
Who is eligible for the NDIS?
To access the NDIS, an individual must:
· have a permanent disability that significantly affects their ability to take part in everyday activities
· be aged less than 65 when they first access the scheme
· meet certain requirements for citizenship and residency.
For more information, see https://myplace.ndis.gov.au/ndisstorefront/index.html
How many HACC clients are likely to be eligible for the NDIS?
The experience of the NDIS trial in the Barwon area during the last three years has been that about a quarter of all HACC clients aged less than 65 became NDIS participants. Those eligible tended to include:
· HACC clients who were also receiving substantial support from State disability services, such as Individual Support Packages (ISPs)
· People receiving a case-managed Linkages package
· People who had been receiving ongoing personal care or respite, or attending a planned activity group.
Many of the above had also been receiving HACC-funded allied health services or home nursing.
What happens to under-65 HACC clients who are not eligible for the NDIS?
Current HACC clients under 65 (or Indigenous clients under 50) who are not eligible for the NDIS will continue to be eligible for services under Victoria’s HACC Program for Younger People. The program will continue to provide the same types of services that were provided under the former HACC Program over the period that the NDIS rolls out in Victoria. These services can include help with housework, personal care, meals, social support and group activities, nursing care and home maintenance. The program provides low level support and maintenance to eligible people and their carers.
Roll-out schedule: When can HACC clients transition to the NDIS?
For current HACC clients, eligibility for the NDIS depends on whether they are receiving any other specialist disability services or whether they are registered on the Disability Support Register (DSR). People in these circumstances will be deemed to be eligible for the NDIS. For people who are solely in receipt of HACC services, eligibility is determined by the NDIA, after an Access Request Form has been received (i.e. they are not deemed to be eligible).
A phasing schedule has been developed for each of the 17 DHHS Areas to guide this process. Phasing-in will occur over a period of six, nine or twelve months, depending on the area. People in each of these groups (on the DSR, in receipt of specialist disability services, and solely in receipt of HACC services) are scheduled to enter the NDIS at different months over an area’s transition period. Typically, it starts with people on the DSR (waiting list), some of whom may be receiving HACC services. The next group includes people currently receiving Individual Support Packages or living in shared supported accommodation facilities. The last group comprises HACC clients who have not also been receiving Disability services. These ‘HACC-only’ clients will be able to test their eligibility during the last two months of the phase-in schedule in the relevant DHHS Area.
If a HACC client is also receiving State disability services, the phase-in date will be the date relevant to those disability services. Thus HACC providers should prepare for some of their current clients joining the NDIS at any time from the beginning of the phasing-in period (i.e. from 1 July 2016 in NEMA, from 1 January 2017 in Central Highlands).
The roll-out schedule is found here: http://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/our-sites/vic
HACC-PYP funding arrangements during NDIS transition
The transition of a proportion of HACC clients to the NDIS involves a significant change in funding arrangements and business processes.
It involves a shift from an arrangement where payments are made directly from a government department to an agency, which then distributes services to individuals on the basis of the agency’s decision about eligibility, to an arrangement where funds are tagged to individuals by a public-sector entity (in this case the NDIA) on the basis of the NDIA’s assessment of an individual’s needs (individualised funding). That individual can then choose which provider delivers services to them. When fully rolled out, the NDIS will pay registered providers in arrears for services delivered to individuals, on presentation of an invoice.
‘In-kind’ arrangements for HACC
To facilitate providers’ and clients’ transition between these different arrangements, DHHS will continue to pay HACC providers their monthly grant at its current level for services to clients aged less than 65 throughout the transition period in each DHHS Area, plus 3 months. Payments will continue irrespective of the number of your clients (if any) who become NDIS participants, as long as you continue to deliver at least the same level of services to these individuals as they are currently receiving over that period.
In NEMA and Central Highlands this ‘in-kind’ period will run until the end of September 2017.
Since the services to your clients who become NDIS participants during this period continue to be paid directly to you via your HACC grant, this is referred to as an in-kind arrangement.
As clients become participants in the NDIS, each provider’s delivery of services will be monitored via the HACC minimum data set. DHHS will provide you with regular data summaries showing the number of individuals who have become NDIS participants, and the estimated value of HACC services that they continue to receive in kind.
Transition to cash
· Early in the phase-in period for your area, DHHS will give you an indicative figure for the amount by which your HACC grant will be reduced at the end of the phase-in period.
· Three months after the end of the NDIS phase-in period for your area, your HACC grant will be reduced by a certain amount, which will represent your organisation’s share of the ‘cashed out’ value of these services in your area. For example, in NEMA and Central Highlands, grants will be reduced with effect from 1 October 2017.
· The total cashed-out value will be paid by DHHS to the NDIA. From this date, the NDIA will pay registered service providers cash on invoice for those services they now deliver to former HACC clients.
· If HACC providers are registered as NDIS providers, they will receive cash on invoice from the NDIA for delivering services to NDIS participants. They will also be able to claim cash payments for any additional services they provide to the participant, over and above what they were receiving before they became an NDIS participant.
· HACC-PYP providers will continue to be paid by DHHS to continue delivering services to current clients who are not eligible for the NDIS, consistent with the department’s commitment to funds stability for those clients over the period the NDIS rolls out in Victoria.
More details of the transitional funding arrangements will be available in a further bulletin.
Registration as an NDIS provider
The Department encourages all HACC providers to register as NDIS providers if they have clients aged less than 65 who are likely to be eligible to join the NDIS. This will help ensure a smooth transition for those of your clients who become NDIS participants. Registration as an NDIS provider will serve three purposes:
· It will provide a framework for ensuring quality of services and safeguards for NDIS participants;
· It will facilitate your business process for delivering services to individual NDIS participants; and
· It will enable your organisation to expand into new opportunities in the field of community care, where the advent of the NDIS means the effective doubling of service delivery funds in Victoria.
DHHS has developed a streamlined registration process for HACC providers. Details are available in a separate bulletin on registration and quality and safeguarding distributed on 1 September 2016.
The Department is issuing separate advice to those agencies who decide not to be NDIS providers after their area’s transition period.
Continuing HACC data collection during NDIS roll-out
Victoria’s data collection arrangements for younger HACC clients are unchanged and include individuals as they transition to the NDIS to whom you are delivering services in kind. Your agency must continue to report every quarter to DHHS via the HACC Minimum Data Set (MDS) (email ). The format of the data has not changed, but you should only report services delivered to people under 65, including NDIS participants. Please direct queries to the HACC MDS help desk on phone 9096 7255 or email . The next collection will be for the July to September 2016 quarter, due in October 2016.
When the NDIS begins to roll out in your area, and as some of your clients become NDIS participants, you must continue to include these individuals in your quarterly transmission of data via the HACC MDS. DHHS requires this information to track the delivery of in-kind services to NDIS participants as well as for accountability purposes for the HACC program for younger people.
Local Area Coordination
The NDIA is contracting with organisations to act as Local Area Coordinators. The role of Local Area Coordinators (or LACs) is to support people with disability to develop a care plan within their communities.
The smooth transition of eligible people into the NDIS will depend on good co-operation between the NDIA, the Local Area Coordinator, and the person’s current service provider(s).
More information about Local Area Coordination can be found here: https://myplace.ndis.gov.au/ndisstorefront/people-disability/information-and-referral.html
Further information
The NDIS web site:
https://myplace.ndis.gov.au/ndisstorefront/about-us/our-sites/vic.html
HACC Program for Younger People information on the DHHS website:
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/ageing-and-aged-care/home-and-community-care
Contact your local Department of Health and Human Services divisional health office on the numbers below:
East Division Health (03) 9843 1710
North Division Health (03) 9412 5403
South Division Health (03) 8765 7548
West Division Health (03) 5333 6011
To receive this publication in an accessible format phone 03 9096 7255 using the National Relay Service 13 36 77 if required, or emailAuthorised and published by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne.
© State of Victoria, August 2016
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