Aged care costing

IHACPA collects data on the cost to provide aged care services across residential aged care and Support at Home.

This data supports the development of our aged care pricing advice to the Australian Government as part of Australia’s aged care reforms. 

The Minister for Health and Aged Care then decides on the final price to fund aged care services across Australia.

On this page

  1. How do cost collections work?
  2. Benefits of participation
  3. How to get involved
  4. Additional resources
  5. Previous cost collections
  6. Further information

How do cost collections work?

Our cost collections gather cost and activity data from a wide range of aged care providers with different geographic, demographic, and individual characteristics. This helps ensure we get a sample that represents both older people accessing aged care services and provider costs.

  • We rely on many data sources to complete a cost collection across 3 key areas: 

    - the cost of resources to deliver aged care services 

    - the types of services delivered to older people accessing aged care services 

    - administrative and clinical information about older people and service providers. 

  • Following the collection, the data is cleansed, analysed, and costed to produce what we call a ‘costed dataset’. This is then used to inform our aged care pricing advice. 
  • All data collected by IHACPA is deidentified.

Benefits of participation

Your participation in our cost collections is key to ensuring a sustainable future for quality aged care. By taking part, you can:

  • help shape government pricing advice
  • receive benchmarking insights and data summaries
  • make a positive impact on aged care pricing
  • improve aged care services for older people in Australia.

How to get involved

  • Express your interest in participating in a current cost collection: 
Expansion of the Residential Aged Care Cost Collection 2024–25 Support at Home Cost Collection 2025

Further information

Do you have a question about our cost collections? Contact us by filling the form below.

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