Support at Home is the Australian Government’s new in-home aged care program, which replaced the Home Care Packages (HCP) program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme from 1 November 2025. It represents the most significant overhaul of Australia’s aged care system in nearly three decades, introducing a new claiming model, revised participant contribution rules, a rights-based legislative framework under the Aged Care Act 2024 and stronger compliance requirements for providers.

How is Support at Home different from the Home Care Packages program?

The most material difference for providers is how you get paid. Bulk monthly claiming is gone. Under Support at Home, every service must be itemised, validated and submitted individually through the Aged Care Provider Portal (ACPP). Providers can now set their own prices – though price caps have been deferred by the Federal Government pending further assessment by the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority – and must issue monthly participant statements as a compliance requirement. The scheme also introduces eight classification levels, a 10% care management cap and a 60-day window to submit claims from the end of each quarter.

For a fuller picture of what this means for your business operations, read: Support at Home: Adapting Your Business for the New Funding Model.

What have providers learnt since the program launched?

The transition has been harder than many anticipated. Revenue leakage, claim rejections, co-contribution confusion and cashflow pressure have all emerged as real operational problems – including for large providers. The gap between delivering a service and successfully claiming for it is where most of the difficulty sits.

Read: 100 Days In to Support at Home – Here’s What We’ve Learned.

How does claiming work under Support at Home?

Claiming is a two-step process. First, you submit an invoice for services delivered – itemised using the Support at Home service catalogue, with the correct service codes, pricing and units applied. Second, you request a claim against those submitted invoices. Claims are submitted through the Aged Care Provider Portal or via integrated software that connects directly to Services Australia.

Read: Support at Home Readiness: What Will Claiming Look Like?

How long do providers have to submit a claim?

You have up to 60 days from the end of the quarter in which a service was delivered to submit the claim. Miss that window and the revenue is gone – there is no mechanism to recover it. This is one of the most significant financial risks in the new model, particularly for providers still working through manual processes.

Do I need an invoice before I can claim?

No – and this is a common misconception that is costing providers money. Under Support at Home, you can submit a claim as soon as a service has been delivered and the rate is known, for example based on a published rate or agreed service code. The main exceptions are services requiring external verification, such as home modifications or items needing a formal quote. Waiting for supplier invoices before claiming is an old HCP habit that slows payment cycles and creates unnecessary cashflow pressure.

Read: Support at Home: Claiming Without an Invoice – A Simple Way to Improve Cashflow.

How often can providers submit claims?

From December 2025, providers can decide the frequency of their claims for ongoing services – weekly, fortnightly or monthly. You can change the frequency at any time. Once a claim has been submitted, you cannot submit another until that claim has been approved by Services Australia, though you can continue uploading invoices in the meantime. Services Australia targets payment within 7 days of receiving a valid claim.

What happens if a claim is rejected?

You will receive an error notification in the Aged Care Provider Portal. All issues must be resolved before resubmitting. Known causes of rejection include incorrect service codes, missing supporting documentation (such as medical certificates or receipts for relevant service types) and pricing errors. Services Australia also monitors for unusual claim patterns, which may trigger a review that you are required to cooperate with.

What supporting documentation is required for claims?

For most services, the invoice and service delivery record are sufficient. For higher-tier assistive technology and home modification (AT-HM) claims, supporting evidence must be submitted at the time of claiming. This can include quotes, invoices and prescriptions from a suitably qualified health professional. Maintaining complete, audit-ready records for every claim is a compliance requirement under the Aged Care Act 2024.

Why are some providers experiencing cashflow problems under Support at Home?

Several factors are converging. The shift from bulk monthly payments to itemised real-time claiming changes the rhythm of how revenue flows in. Providers who haven’t adapted their internal processes – or who are still relying on manual claiming – are experiencing delays, missed claims and rejected submissions. The 60-day claim window adds urgency that simply didn’t exist under HCP. And with interim funding sitting at 60% of total funding for participants still waiting for their full allocation, revenue is constrained for providers carrying those participants on their books.

Read: Support at Home: The Cashflow Gap Nobody Warned You About.

What is the biggest source of revenue leakage under the new program?

Getting service delivery data into a format that is actually claimable through Services Australia. The data usually exists – the problem is translating it accurately and consistently into compliant submissions at scale. Duplicate claims, missed claims and submissions that fall outside the 60-day window are all common. None of these are minor administrative inconveniences; they represent lost revenue that cannot be recovered.

How does care management funding work?

The Department of Health and Aged Care requires Services Australia to deduct 10% from each participant’s quarterly budget for care management and pool those amounts at the service delivery branch level. This pooled funding (plus any care management supplement participants are eligible for) is credited to your care management account on the first day of each quarter. You then claim care management activities against this account. For the Restorative Care and End-of-Life pathways, care management is claimed directly against the participant’s funding account for that pathway.

What happens to unspent participant funds?

Up to $1,000 or 10% of a participant’s quarterly budget (whichever is greater) rolls over to the following quarter. Amounts above that threshold do not roll over. At the end of the financial year, unspent funds do not carry over into the new financial year, which means proactive budget management and regular communication with participants are important parts of good financial governance under the new model.

How do participant co-contributions work under Support at Home?

Contributions are based on each participant’s individual income and asset assessment, conducted by Services Australia using a means test similar to the Age Pension. Contribution rates are set as a percentage of the cost of each service type – they vary by service category and individual financial circumstances. Clinical care services (such as nursing and physiotherapy) attract no participant contribution. Independence and everyday living services (such as personal care) attract a moderate contribution. From 1 October 2026, personal care will move to the clinical supports contribution category and will be fully government-funded.

There is a lifetime contribution cap of $135,318.69 (as at 1 November 2025, indexed twice yearly). The Department of Health and Aged Care and Services Australia notify providers and participants when a participant approaches the cap.

Read: Support at Home: Managing the Co-Contribution Conversation.

What are providers responsible for when it comes to co-contributions?

Providers are responsible for establishing and managing the process of collecting contributions directly from participants. The timing can be flexible – weekly, fortnightly, monthly or by another agreed arrangement. Providers must also ensure their teams can explain contribution logic clearly to participants and that frontline staff have access to accurate, up-to-date financial assessment data. As the program matures, clear communication around contributions is emerging as a key factor in participant trust and retention.

Read: Support at Home Readiness: Mastering Co-Contributions.

How do I find out what a participant’s contribution rate is?

Formal contribution rates are available to providers in the Aged Care Provider Portal, or via integrated software where applicable. Rates are determined by Services Australia following an individual income and assets assessment. Providers using software with portal integration can pull this data automatically rather than relying on manual lookups.

Are monthly participant statements a legal requirement?

Yes. Under the Support at Home program and the Aged Care Act 2024, monthly participant statements are a compliance obligation. Providers must issue a statement each month outlining services delivered, contributions paid and the participant’s remaining quarterly budget. The Department of Health and Aged Care has published mandatory requirements and an official template to support consistency.

What must a monthly participant statement include?

The Department of Health and Aged Care sets out exactly what must be included. Mandatory items are: available funding at the start of the month, a list of services delivered (including cancellations and no-shows) with service type, quantity and price, total participant contributions paid, remaining funding at month end, any adjustments or refunds from previous months and committed AT-HM funds for items not yet delivered. Statements must be issued by the last day of the following month – even if no services were delivered that month. Best practice goes beyond the minimum. Participants and their families also benefit from plain-language service descriptions, an at-a-glance budget summary and clear visibility of what they owe. Statements that are genuinely readable, not just technically compliant, reduce inbound queries and build the trust that underpins participant retention.

Read: Support at Home: What Should Be Included in the Monthly Participant Statement.

Can providers set their own prices under Support at Home?

Yes – but with conditions. Providers have flexibility to set their own prices, but these must be reasonable, transparent and justifiable. Price caps were originally due to commence 1 July 2026 but have since been deferred by the Federal Government, with a revised timeline yet to be confirmed. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has flagged pricing transparency as one of the most common compliance issues identified through its prudential review program. Providers with prices that appear unreasonable and are not adequately justified can be referred for compliance and enforcement action.

What are the key financial governance obligations for providers?

The new Aged Care Act 2024 introduces stronger obligations around financial sustainability, governance and transparency. Providers must maintain clear records, price services transparently and be able to demonstrate the reasonableness of their pricing if asked. The shift to itemised, real-time claiming also means that financial reporting needs to be more granular and more current than it was under HCP.

Read: Support at Home: Adapting Your Business for the New Funding Model.

Yes – and a growing number are. The two schemes serve different populations but share many of the same operational challenges: itemised claiming, compliance obligations, budget management and the risk of revenue leakage. Providers already working in the NDIS have a head start on understanding how a real-time claiming environment works. The main adjustments are around the different portal infrastructure, service catalogue and participant contribution rules.

Read: Thinking About Adding Aged Care to Your NDIS Services? Here’s What You Need to Know.

Read: Managing Two Schemes at Once? There’s a Better Way.

How does quickclaim handle Support at Home billing?

quickclaim is already integrated with the government Aged Care Provider Portal, and built for the Support at Home claiming environment from day one. Every claim is validated and reconciled before submission to Services Australia, with extensive validation rules applied to ensure compliance. Claims are tracked from submission through to payment, so nothing gets missed, nothing gets submitted twice and the finance team has full visibility of what’s been paid, what’s outstanding and what’s held over.

Does quickclaim integrate with existing CRM and finance systems?

Yes. quickclaim works with a wide range of existing CRM and finance platforms – including AlayaCare, ShiftCare, Carelink, Lumary, Microsoft365, TechnologyOne, MYOB, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct and others – so providers can start claiming without re-engineering how they operate.

Can quickclaim help with the 60-day claiming window?

Directly, yes. When claiming is automated and validated, the 60-day window stops being a risk and becomes standard operating rhythm. Claims go out accurately and on time, payment comes back predictably and the compliance record is maintained without manual effort.

How do I get started with quickclaim for Support at Home?

Book a free demo and the team can walk through your current setup and what fast-tracked onboarding looks like. quickclaim has helped over 50 NDIS providers process more than $1.8 billion in claims – the operational model for Support at Home follows the same principles.