The Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) Explained
Published: 07 October 2019
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Published: 07 October 2019
The Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) is managed by the Australian Government’s Department of Health.
ACFI is used to assess the degree of care each aged care resident needs and to allocate funding accordingly. ACFI pays subsidies to the residential aged care facility that is providing the care (National Care Solutions 2019).
While questions regarding care needs relate to individual residents, the sum of results provides a broader picture of the amount of funding deemed necessary for the facility (National Care Solutions 2019).
ACFI focuses on care needs that relate to day-to-day and high-frequency need for care. These are deemed necessary considerations to make in order to estimate the average cost of care in longer stay environments, i.e. residential aged care (Australian Government Department of Health 2016).
The Aged Care Funding Instrument is best understood as a resource allocation instrument. It focuses on the main areas that distinguish core care needs among care recipients. (Australian Government Department of Health 2016).
These core needs fall into three domains:
ACFI criteria takes into account factors such as a resident’s continence; mobility; cognitive ability; and other daily care factors, ultimately categorising a resident as being ‘low-care’ or ‘high-care’ (National Care Solutions 2019).
ACFI assessments are carried out by trained assessors employed by the aged care provider (National Care Solutions 2019).
Within the Aged Care Funding Instrument User Guide there are:
The 12 questions – in combination with other considerations such as health diagnoses and assessments – produce the resident’s ‘ACFI rating’ (National Care Solutions 2019).
(Australian Government Department of Health 2016)
(Australian Government Department of Health 2016)
(Australian Government Department of Health 2016)
ACFI should be carried out in this progression:
Under ACFI, residents may be reassessed as needed and if their needs classification require it, an application can be made for a higher funding subsidy from the government (Aged Care Crisis 2015).
Note: While the ACFI questions provide basic information that is related to fundamental care need areas, it is not intended to be a comprehensive assessment package. A holistic assessment must take into account a broader range of care needs than is necessarily required in a funding instrument (Australian Government Department of Health 2016).
Understanding changes that took place on 1 January 2017 with regard to ACFI
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INFORMATIVE.
Good resource to understand ACFI funding and the care residents require.
Knowledgeable
Very informative
insightful article breaking down the processes associated with funding for residents in aged care facilities.
Good clear and concise article. Helpful to aged care practice
Quick, succinct, easy to understand and general knowledge learned. Has inspired me to learn more about aged care in general.
Summary of changes with good links for further information around ACFI
quick concise easy to read. simple yet effective language that is easily understood.
Acfi is the funding tool for all care and services provided in an Aged Care facility . Itself is the cornerstones for all personalised care beeing deliverd to the Residents. It captures the need of the individual resources needed for the delay care needs and helps formulates the strategies needed for the delivery of safe and current nursing tecknics.
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