NSW Negotiating Basic Daily Fee @ Nursing Home

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David Chang

Well-Known Member
31 August 2016
21
1
124
This morning I was shocked to find out that Basic Daily Fee at Nursing Home is not the same as DAP.

From myAgedCare, there's 2 pricing:
  1. Maximum Refundable Deposit
  2. Maximum Daily Payments
Essentially these are just RAD and DAP.

To find out Basic Daily Fee of $51.21 per day is quite heartbreaking and I need to break this news to my mom shortly. Financially, I don't believe we're ready for this Basic Daily Fee.

Spoke to AgedCare rep and was advised 2 things:
  1. Speak to the nursing home management and try to negotiate the Basic Daily Fee.
  2. Submit Financial Hardship to Centrelink
If anyone has any experience with nursing home regulation, i would very much appreciate it if you can give me a pointer as I am quite lost at the moment on how to cover the $51.21 per day fee as it is quite substantial.

Questions:
  1. How should I approach the nursing home management? should I just say that we can't afford the Basic Daily Fee and just wanted to understand if we can negotiate the Basic Daily Fee by any chance?
  2. Dad's Asset and Income Assessment was just submitted last Friday; can I submit Financial Hardship without knowing the outcome of that? the reason being is Basic Daily Fee is inevitable, regardless of what the outcome is hence I just want to be proactive and plan the family financially.
  3. If the answer to #2 is Yes, then the concern that I have is I have yet any contract with the Nursing Home as dad is currently at Respite Care (Respite Agreement) and the form is asking me to submit the Contract; should I just submit the form and explaining our situation in a covering letter?
 

toyomark

Member
13 December 2022
1
0
1
I think you can find other options. If the nursing home is located in a warm climate, less money is spent on living there.