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 Ageing then decides on the final price to fund aged care services across Australia.
On this page
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.
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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
Expressions of interest for the Expansion of the Residential Aged Care Cost Collection 2024-25 and the Support at Home Cost Collection 2025 have now closed. Thank you to all service providers who expressed interest in participating.
Contact us if you have any questions or would like more information about our future aged care cost collections via agedcarecosting@ihacpa.gov.au or fill in the form below.
Additional resources
- Learn more about the Health Record Management System (HRMS) Data Integration feasibility study, an extension of the Residential Aged Care Cost Collection 2024-25
- Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety
- Resource Utilisation and Classification Study (RUCS) Reports
- Aged care costing – Fact Sheet
- Aged Care Cost Data Collection webinar recordings
Previous cost collections
View reports from our previous cost collections:
Further information
Do you have a question about our cost collections? Contact us by filling the form below.