5th Dec 2019, 10:28 AM – Senate Aged Care Legislation Amendment (New Commissioner Functions) Bill 2019 - in Committee - Transparency obligations

The same number of senators voted for and against an amendment introduced by South Australian Senator Stirling Griff (Centre Alliance), which means it failed.

Amendment text

(1) Page 82 (after line 21), after Schedule 3, insert:

Schedule 3A—Transparency of approved providers

Aged Care Act 1997

1 After section 9-2

Insert:

9-2A Obligation to provide Commissioner a report

(1) As soon as practicable within 3 months after the end of a financial year, an approved provider must provide the *Quality and Safety Commissioner with a written report for each facility operated by the provider that provided residential care in the financial year.

(2) The report must include the following information:

(a) the total income received by the provider from the facility;

(b) the sources of that income;

(c) the total amount spent in the financial year;

(d) the total cost of care expenditure which includes the itemised cost of the following:

(i) food and food supplements;

(ii) medical products;

(iii) continence aids;

(e) the total cost of accommodation;

(f) the total cost of staff members for each category of staff member referred to in subsection (3);

(g) the total cost of staff member training;

(h) the total amount of other operational expenditure itemised by category;

(i) any amount paid to a related body corporate within the meaning of section 50 of the Corporations Act 2011.

Note: Approved providers have a responsibility under Part 4.3 to comply with this obligation. Failure to comply with a responsibility can result in a sanction being imposed under Part 7A of the *Quality and Safety Commission Act. The expenditure report provided under this section is made publicly available (see section 96-11).

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2) (f), the categories of staff member are the following:

(a) registered nurses;

(b) enrolled nurses;

(c) personal care attendants;

(d) allied health staff;

(e) administrative staff;

(f) other staff members.

Note: The category of other staff members should be further broken down into appropriate categories.

(4) In this section:

staff member of an approved provider has the same meaning as in section 63-1AA.

2 After section 96-10

Insert:

96-11 Publication of reports by Commissioner

The Quality and Safety Commissioner must make publicly available the report provided to the Commissioner under section 9-2A.