Submission: Aged Care Rules consultation - Release 4B

We made a formal submission to the Department of Health and Aged Care’s (the department) consultation on the Aged Care Rules consultation - Release 4B. 

We’re speaking up for you: Your concerns, our advocacy

Why? Because you’ve told us how much you value working with older Australians – helping them stay mobile, independent and engaged in their communities.

That’s why we’re making sure osteopathy continues to be recognised as an essential part of aged care.

In our submission, we made five main recommendations:

1. Include osteopathy in the definitions: The draft only defines physiotherapy as an allied health profession. Osteopathy is notably absent, along with all other allied health professions. This lack of definition creates confusion and risks further marginalising our profession in aged care.
2. Clarify osteopathy’s role in aged care:  Despite previous advocacy, we’re still waiting for clarity on osteopathy’s inclusion under the Support at Home service list or for residential care. This draft doesn’t answer that. We’ve called that out again!
3. Broaden who can conduct classification assessments: Currently, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists can conduct classification assessments for older people. We’ve recommended expanding this to include osteopaths, who are equally qualified to assess mobility, pain and function.
4. Fix the pricing model:  Pricing caps commence in 2026, however, there is failure to acknowledge the various tasks an osteopath conducts as a part of their routine visit such as report writing, travel associated costs, insurance, police checks etc. We have recommended an individual line item for each activity, mirroring other funding schemes.
5. Reconsider cost burdens for providers: Allied health is too often an afterthought in aged care. Providers are expected to absorb auditing costs and service registration costs. – which inevitability get passed on to older Australians. We’ve recommended the department to rethink this. 

What’s next?

We’ll continue to push for osteopathy to be formally recognised as an allied health profession in Support at Home and residential care. As always, we’ll keep you informed on progress.

This is your profession, your voice and your future – we’re here to amplify it.   

Read our full submission here.