Aged care and NDIS update archive
Use this archive for earlier source-linked records. Check the official source and its checked date before changing a document or workflow.
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Published by Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
ACQSC alert: unauthorised prescribing on eNRMC
ACQSC's 13 August 2026 alert follows a case in which an unauthorised aged care worker accessed a residential provider's electronic National Residential Medication Chart (eNRMC), created a false prescriber profile, and prescribed or changed medicines and medication charts without valid authority. No significant harm was reported, but the case exposes linked risks to resident safety, system access controls and personal information. The alert reiterates existing obligations and regulatory expectations; it is not new legislation.
Document and workflow checks
- If unauthorised access or prescribing is suspected, immediately protect potentially affected older people, arrange urgent review by a medical practitioner, investigate the activity and preserve authorised audit evidence.
- Verify prescriber identity, credentials and authority; use independent approval or second sign-off where appropriate, promptly deactivate access that is no longer required, and monitor unfamiliar profiles, unsupported medicine changes and unusual access patterns.
- Follow the provider's incident management process. Notify police, Ahpra and the Commission where appropriate; separately assess feedback, SIRS and open-disclosure requirements against the circumstances rather than assuming every anomaly follows the same reporting path.
- Keep resident, medication, access-log and investigation records in the provider's authorised systems, not in CaresLink.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
This is a regulatory safety alert, not prescribing or treatment advice, a cyber-security certification, or a new law. CaresLink does not receive resident, medication or access-log data and does not replace urgent clinical review, authorised eNRMC records, incident management, open disclosure or official reporting.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
MND: Support at Home priority access and AT-HM immediate priority
The Department says older people with MND recorded during their aged care assessment have priority access to ongoing Support at Home funding and immediate priority under the AT-HM scheme. These arrangements apply to people already approved for either funding pathway and to people approved in future; providers should document the official pathway without deciding eligibility or priority.
Document and workflow checks
- Record whether the enquiry concerns ongoing Support at Home, AT-HM funding, or both.
- If the person is unsure whether MND was recorded, direct the question to their assessment organisation and record the follow-up owner.
- If MND was diagnosed after the assessment and funding is pending, record the My Aged Care reassessment contact pathway.
- Keep diagnosis, eligibility, approval, urgency, and funding decisions outside provider templates and CaresLink wording.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink does not diagnose MND or decide assessment, eligibility, approval, priority, funding timing, or care needs.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Personal care contribution implementation clarified
From 1 October 2026, approved personal care services with available Support at Home funding move to the Clinical Supports contribution category. Services Australia will apply the category automatically using the service delivery date; services delivered before 1 October still attract the current participant contribution even when they appear on a later statement or invoice. Its 9 September announcement confirms that Aged Care Provider Portal invoices, claim details and payment statements will show Clinical Supports. Claim submission is unchanged; late claims and amendments use the service delivery date. The Department's 1 October provider session, published on 9 October, says that if a participant is incorrectly charged for personal care delivered from 1 October, providers should check the service date and affected invoice, claim and statement, correct the error and charge, and explain the outcome to the participant. The change does not increase a participant's budget, approved services or available funding and does not require reassessment solely because of the contribution change; eligibility and approval requirements still apply.
Source checked
Open official source (opens in a new tab)Open the archived record- Personal care information session 10: post-launch implementation and corrections (opens in a new tab)
- Services Australia: Personal care services will appear as Clinical Supports from 1 October 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Support at Home personal care contributions (opens in a new tab)
- Personal care contribution change - stakeholder kit for providers (opens in a new tab)
- Provider Readiness Checklist Playbook (opens in a new tab)
- Personal care information session presentation - 9 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Getting ready for the personal care contribution change (opens in a new tab)
- Personal care contribution change - Easy Read (opens in a new tab)
- Personal care information sessions for Support at Home providers - session 6 (opens in a new tab)
- Personal care information sessions for Support at Home providers - session 7 (opens in a new tab)
- Changes to personal care information sessions for Support at Home providers - presentation - 20 August 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Document and workflow checks
- Use the service delivery date, not the statement, invoice, or claim date, to distinguish services before and from 1 October 2026.
- Review service agreements, care plans, budgets, monthly statements, and invoices where changes are needed before 1 October.
- Record that eligibility and approval requirements remain unchanged and available funding is still required.
- Do not promise additional services from the contribution change alone; confirm the participant's approved services and available budget through the authorised record.
- How providers submit personal care claims to Services Australia does not change; check the Portal display on invoices, claim details and payment statements, including late claims and amendments for pre-1 October services, against the 9 September announcement.
- For a contribution incorrectly charged on personal care delivered from 1 October, confirm the service date, identify and correct the affected invoice, claim or statement, resolve the charge, explain the outcome and provide an updated document if needed; escalate recurring issues through the provider's authorised process.
- Keep worker-facing personal care instructions separate from contribution or billing wording.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
This tracker does not calculate participant contributions or provide pricing, claiming, or financial advice.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Second statutory aged care wait-times report published for Q4
The second statutory report covers Q4, 1 April to 30 June 2026. It reports a median 297 days for ongoing Support at Home, 14 days for the End-of-Life Pathway, and 255 days across non-specialist care applications. These figures are retrospective application-to-service-start elapsed times, not current wait-time promises. They cannot be directly compared with My Aged Care approval-to-funding reporting because the measurement start and end points differ.
Document and workflow checks
- Label every quoted figure with Q4 2025-26, the care type, and the report's application-to-service-start definition.
- Do not turn the historical medians into a current promise, forecast, individual expected date, or service guarantee.
- Keep this statutory measure separate from approval-to-funding figures and explain that their start and end points differ.
- Record the report source, checked date, and any later revision or superseding report beside public or internal wording.
- Use My Aged Care or the relevant assessment and service pathway for an individual's current status rather than estimating it from the report.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink does not predict an individual's wait, promise a service date, determine priority, or provide legal, clinical, financial, assessment, or service-allocation advice. Use current official channels for an individual's status.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
CHSP DEX Stage 3 session fields live from 11 August 2026
Stage 3 session fields went live in DEX on 11 August 2026 for applicable service information retained from 1 July. Fields remain service-specific: the July guide identifies meal-delivery engagement time and transport trip distance, trip time and engagement time as optional for 2026-27; transport engagement time does not apply to indirect transport. The September Manual v5 distinguishes monthly service-delivery reports due on the 14th or next business day (not SSD-only providers) from DEX hard closes on 30 January and 30 July, after which it says the portal will not reopen for corrections. Those hard closes do not extend monthly reporting. Its separate 1 November 2026 Service Agreement and Care and Services Plan transition is not a DEX submission deadline. These are Manual v5 source checks, not a new October Stage 3 launch.
Source checked
Open official source (opens in a new tab)Open the archived record- CHSP Manual v5 PDF: service agreements (9.5), DEX hard close (13.3), monthly reporting (13.5) (opens in a new tab)
- CHSP DEX implementation update (June 2026): Stage 3 launch history (opens in a new tab)
- CHSP Data Exchange Guide from 1 July 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Commonwealth Home Support Program reforms (opens in a new tab)
Document and workflow checks
- Map each funded service type to the fields that apply before changing forms, exports, or staff instructions.
- Distinguish fields that are required where applicable, fields activated by a service response, and fields the July guide marks optional for 2026-27.
- Review whether applicable information for services delivered from 1 July 2026 was retained in the organisation's approved client management system while the Stage 3 fields were unavailable in DEX.
- Confirm with the current DEX guidance and software vendor how July session records already entered or submitted should be handled; do not assume every earlier record needs to be recreated.
- Test portal entry, bulk upload, export, validation errors, and fallback ownership without copying client information into CaresLink.
- Keep the monthly 14th-day/next-business-day report distinct from the 30 January and 30 July hard closes. Resolve rejected records before the applicable close under current official instructions, without promising a reopened period.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink does not access DEX, submit or correct session records, determine reporting obligations, assess compliance, or provide legal, regulatory, financial, clinical, software, or professional advice.
Published by Services Australia
Services Australia retrospective invoice adjustments and CSV workflow
Source availability checked 11 September 2026: the 11 August news item at servicesaustralia.gov.au/support-home-retrospective-adjustments is no longer available (404). The historical account below was last checked on 21 August; it is not newly verified current guidance. That announcement said that from 8 August 2026 a provider's next claim may include adjustments after retrospective changes to entry or departure events, means assessments, hardship assessments, approvals, or budgets, with items reviewed in the Aged Care Provider Portal. This does not mean every previously approved invoice was wrong. The live official source now linked covers invoice CSV files and account-adjustment resources; it does not independently confirm all of the unavailable news page's details. A missing news page does not itself establish a policy change.
Document and workflow checks
- Before acting on the historical announcement, ask the authorised finance or portal owner to confirm current Services Australia guidance and the actual claim record.
- Record the affected claim and invoice references, adjustment amount, visible reason or trigger, review date, and follow-up owner in the provider's approved system.
- Keep retrospective system adjustments distinct from provider corrections, rejected claims, CSV validation issues, and participant monthly-statement questions.
- Reconcile any adjustment against authorised entry, departure, assessment, hardship, approval, and budget records without copying sensitive evidence into CaresLink.
- Retain an invoice CSV owner, version check, vendor escalation path, and review record for the broader submission workflow.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink does not determine why Services Australia made an adjustment, calculate or correct a claim, access the Aged Care Provider Portal, or provide claims, billing, accounting, legal, financial, software, or professional advice.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
B2G Client APIs and My Aged Care portal administration update
The July Tech Talk says Client API specifications have been available to software vendors since 29 June 2026. The APIs cover referral, support plan, assessment, and client-management information. Updated portal resources also cover administrator functions, service delivery outlets, and service information.
Document and workflow checks
- Record the software vendor, product, version, contact, source checked date, and next review date.
- Map referral, support plan, assessment, and client-data workflows to internal owners without entering sensitive data into CaresLink.
- Assign owners for portal administrator access, service delivery outlets, and service-information updates.
- Record test scope, result, unresolved issue, workaround, rollback owner, and next review date.
- Use official portal guidance and vendor instructions for technical or operational decisions.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink is not a portal, API, software-conformance, claims, referral, or client-data tool. Do not place participant, client, clinical, financial, portal, or other sensitive provider data into CaresLink prompts.
Published by Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Support at Home program assurance plan 2025-27
The Department's assurance plan describes review activity for the next 18 to 24 months. Reviews may examine charges, financial accounting, service delivery, participant choice, records, information, and procedures. The practical CaresLink task is to map who owns each record and where it is kept.
Document and workflow checks
- Create an evidence map for charges, financial accounting, service delivery, participant communication, and procedures.
- Record an owner, storage location, review period, source link, and checked date for each evidence area.
- Keep participant records, financial records, and internal assurance response material in reviewed provider systems rather than CaresLink.
- Record official information requests, due dates, handoffs, and follow-up owners through the provider's own process.
- Keep formal assurance, regulatory, legal, financial, and professional interpretation outside CaresLink.
Related CaresLink resources
Usage boundary
CaresLink does not assess assurance outcomes, provider compliance, record sufficiency, financial treatment, or regulatory obligations and does not provide legal, compliance, financial, clinical, or professional advice.