Report: The association’s meeting with the Department of Health and Aged Care and ANZACTA

About the meeting

On 16 December 2024, Antony Nicholas, CEO Osteopathy Australia and Stephanie Santos, Policy and Advocacy Manager had a collaborative meeting with Helen Killmier, Chair of the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA) and Jasmine Snow, Assistant Secretary Home Support and Hearing Branch, Department of Health and Aged Care. The meeting was a follow on from our letter sent in collaboration with ANZACATA on 4 December 2024 where we discussed issues about the Support at Home Service list including seeking the department’s rationale about why osteopathy and art therapy have been excluded from the ‘allied health and therapy’ service type. The key issue we have with the Service List is omitting osteopathy from the ‘allied health and therapy’ service type, which means older Australians will be required to pay more out of pocket for osteopathy services rather than government funding 100%. We provided justifications and evidence about why osteopathy and art therapy are allied health professions and must be recategorised. Key reasons why osteopathy should be recategorised are because of the exceptional benefits older Australians receive from their care like:

• Fall prevention and management
• Mobility
• Pain prevention and management
• Manual therapy and rehabilitation
• Exercise prescription
• Prevention, lifestyle and health education
• Other evidence-based techniques to improve functional capacity and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
• Changing mobility
• Rehabilitative exercise prescription.

Personnel at the department were transparent in saying there is not much scope to change the service list ahead of July 2025. The department advised there was much debate about where professions should sit, whilst the government was trying to balance co-contributions. It was suggested that the department would be reviewing the Service List over time. The department also advised that grandfathering arrangements for Home Care Packages (HCP) will have special arrangements until the transition We encourage osteopaths to ensure they are on an older Australian's HCP as clearly outlined as an osteopath to ensure older Australians can continue to enjoy the benefits of osteopathy.

We will continue to advocate for osteopathy to be included under the correct service type of the Service List. We will ensure we continue to advocate for osteopathy once the department reviews the Service List.