‘Catastrophic’ fears: health staff made lists of concerning cases days after Australia’s aged care funding tool launch

Exclusive: Documents reveal assessors’ grave fears if client needs are underestimated by tool that can’t be overridden

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State health officials were so alarmed by a controversial federal government aged-care funding tool that they kept a log of hundreds of cases where vulnerable older Australians were severely under-assessed.

It also led to one senior state health official writing to the federal government to warn of “catastrophic” outcomes from its algorithmic tool – used to determine support levels for in-home care – and that her staff were “fielding calls from distraught clients and assessors”.