When looking at the cost section of a Home Care Package provider’s profile, there’s a lot of information to digest. It’s important to get it right. Cost is usually a priority for potential clients. It can mean the difference between choosing your organisation or not. Cost is also the easiest way to compare service providers.
As it’s such an important feature, providing current, accurate detail on costs is crucial. Perception is key, and a user’s opinion of your organisation will be influenced by this.
Importantly, users can view your pricing information via a new Home Care Package cost feature in the Find a provider tool section of the website. The new feature includes:
- a quick costs checkers for common services
- cost-comparison indicators to compare your pricing against the average pricing for the area you’re in
- a note to show when your content was last updated.
Where to add this information
There are many screens in the provider portal for adding costs, beginning with this screen:
There is also a section for adding a pricing schedule:
Where it appears for the user
Costs location:
Costs checker:
Pricing schedule information:
Dos and Don’ts
Do: Keep it up to date and accurate.
Don’t: Forget to consider which is more accurate: ‘$0’ or ‘N/A’.
Tips
- Regularly check your profile to ensure costs are accurate. Adjust them as soon as that information changes.
- When you add ‘N/A’ as a cost, consider whether ‘$0’ is a better representation of the information. Note you cannot put $0 or N/A for care management as this is a mandatory service.
- “Standard hours” for each common service (e.g., personal care, nursing etc) must have a single price per hour. If you use 'N/A' or '$0.01' it doesn’t help users (or your organisation) in the long run.
- If your prices differ depending on the subcontractor, you can also enter a price range. This is in addition to the single price per hour (your average price). This is preferred by users.
- If you offer services on non-standard hours, weekends or public holidays, you also need to add a price per hour. This applies even if your price is the same as standard hours. If you don't offer services during these times, you can put ‘N/A’.
- If you’re presenting a range of values for a service, make sure the range and the specific cost mentioned make sense together.
- Make sure that your pricing information that you list on My Aged Care is consistent with your organisation’s website and what you’ve listed in Home Care Agreements.
Ensure that if you charge staff travel costs for time travelled (when a staff member is travelling between care recipients homes, providers office and/or staff members home to provide care and services such as care management, nursing and garden maintenance etc) that prices are listed per km on My Aged Care.