Our role in residential aged care
IHACPA provides pricing and costing advice to the Australian Government on the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model for residential aged care and residential respite care.
Introduced on 1 October 2022, the AN-ACC funding model aims to provide equitable funding to providers that better aligns with residents’ needs and the costs of delivering care.
Since 1 July 2023, we have provided annual pricing advice to government to inform decisions on the AN-ACC price and price weights for each AN-ACC class, respite class and base care tariff category. It is the government who then determines and announces the annual price for aged care services. Following agreement from the Minister for Health and Ageing, we publish our advice.
Our work is guided by the minister’s Expectations Setting Paper and our Statement of Intent. These outline our aged care pricing and costing work, including responsibilities and scope when developing our advice.
Aged care pricing roles and responsibilities
IHACPA's role is to develop aged care pricing and costing advice. This includes:
- undertaking cost collections and public consultations, and analysing data and stakeholder feedback.
- developing the pricing framework and pricing advice that we provide to government.
The Australian Government's role is to set aged care pricing. This includes:
- determining and announcing the prices, which is done by the Minister for Health and Aged Care.
- supporting program implementation and policy settings, which is done by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
To support our work, we:
- undertake regular cost collections
- consider other available cost and activity data such as the Aged Care Financial Report and Quarterly Financial Report data
- seek input from stakeholders through annual public consultations
- work closely with our advisory committees.
Our pricing advice process:
IHACPA:
- engages in cost collections with participating providers
- releases annual Consultation on the Pricing Framework for Australian Residential Aged Care Services
- develops the Pricing Framework for Australian Residential Aged Care Services
- provides Residential Aged Care Pricing Advice to the Australian Government.
The Australian Government:
- determines and announces the AN-ACC price for residential aged care and residential respite care funding.
IHACPA:
- publishes the Residential Aged Care Pricing Advice, following Ministerial agreement to publish.
Current activities
There are opportunities to have your say and participate in the development of our pricing and costing advice each year. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date about upcoming activities.
Open consultations
Residential aged care – Thursday 9 July to 5pm AEST Friday 21 August 2026Learn more
For more information, explore our residential aged care pricing and costing resources.