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Financial Sustainability in Aged Care | 2025 Insights

Aged care providers in 2025 are navigating a perfect storm: workforce pressures, tighter margins, shifting funding models, and a compliance-heavy regulatory landscape. As the Support at Home program and Aged Care Act 2024 reforms approach full implementation (starting 1 November 2025), the financial health of aged care operators has never been more fragile or more fixable.

This guide goes beyond cost-cutting. It outlines what high-performing providers are doing to build long-term financial resilience while maintaining quality, compliance, and trust.


Aged Care Finance Snapshot: What the Data Tells Us

According to Mirus Australia (2025):

  • Residential aged care providers are operating at an average $11/day deficit per resident

  • Sector-wide losses exceed $700 million, even among better-resourced services

  • Staffing compliance and unplanned admin time are key cost drivers

Meanwhile, home care providers face a different storm:

  • Unclear unit pricing under the incoming Support at Home model

  • Rising cost-to-serve due to decentralised operations

  • Challenges in balancing flexible, person-centred care with budget predictability

Key Insight: Financial sustainability isn’t just about more funding. It’s about more efficient systems, stronger governance, and better cost visibility.


1. The Real Cost of Compliance

With the Aged Care Act 2024 set to go live in November 2025, financial pressure isn’t just clinical—it’s governance-linked.

What’s Changing:

  • Providers must deliver audit-ready documentation for care minutes, incidents, and governance

  • Real-time metrics tied to Star Ratings and Strengthened Quality Standards

  • Boards and executives are now personally accountable for financial and clinical safety

Impact on Cost:

  • Compliance preparation is consuming 15–20% of management time

  • Late or patchy documentation leads to funding delays and claim rejections

  • Fines and sanctions cost more than prevention

Provider Strategy:

  • Automating audit trails via platforms like Curki.ai

  • Assigning compliance liaisons who bridge care and governance

  • Embedding compliance logic in frontline workflows


2. Predictive Financial Governance

Gone are the days of quarterly spreadsheets. Top providers now:

  • Track service-level profitability in real time

  • Model wage increases, staff shortages, or funding changes before they hit

  • Use visual dashboards to compare cost-per-minute, per-client, or per-region

Tools That Enable This:

  • AI dashboards (e.g., Curki.ai) that integrate care, finance, HR, and compliance

  • Dynamic modelling of Support at Home funding scenarios

  • Flagging anomalies in wage-to-care ratio or billable-to-nonbillable hours

Result: 15–30% faster decision-making, fewer financial shocks.


3. Labour: Your Largest Cost, Greatest Opportunity

Labour accounts for up to 80% of aged care operating costs. But mismanaged, it’s also your greatest risk.

Common Problems:

  • Over-servicing vs. under-claiming: care teams unsure what’s billable

  • Shift gaps leading to costly agency hire or non-compliance

  • Fatigue-related errors from poor rostering

Smart Operators Are:

  • Using AI rostering to match staff skills with client needs and minimise overtime

  • Embedding fatigue prediction tools in shift planning

  • Aligning rosters with funding deliverables, not just availability

Win: Fewer missed visits, higher continuity, lower rework.


4. Maximising Service Mix Profitability

High-performing providers aren’t just cutting costs—they’re rethinking what services to grow, streamline, or sunset.

Approach:

  • Service-level costing: understanding the margin per service line

  • Cross-mapping care complexity with resource intensity

  • Prioritising low-effort, high-impact interventions

Example:

  • A provider found wellness check-ins generated 25% more engagement and took half the time of clinical visits—boosting margin and client satisfaction


5. Funding Reform Readiness: Support at Home & Beyond

Support at Home is coming—but unit pricing and package structures remain unclear. Providers must:

  • Prepare to shift from block-funding to client-outcomes-based billing

  • Build transparent costings to justify service value

  • Educate staff on the difference between clinical necessity and billable activity

What Works:

  • Scenario planning for different unit cost outcomes

  • Client education tools that link goals to service mix

  • Digitally tracking client outcomes to support future negotiations


6. Digitisation as a Financial Lever

Tech investments feel expensive until you measure the hours (and claims) they unlock.

Case Study:

A residential provider invested in AI-based speech-to-text documentation:

  • Reduced nurse admin time by 31%

  • Audit readiness improved by 42%

  • ROI achieved within 7 months

High-ROI Digital Priorities:

  • Auto-invoicing + validation

  • Documentation AI + audit mapping

  • Incident escalation + triage logic

  • Service cost calculators by client or package


✨ Final Thought: The Providers That Thrive Are Operationally Intelligent

In 2025, financial sustainability in aged care isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about:

  • Smarter use of your workforce

  • Cleaner alignment of care with compliance

  • Real-time insight into your biggest risks and opportunities

AI and digital platforms like Curki.ai are helping providers move from manual to strategic operations where every dollar, hour, and outcome is optimised.


Want to know where your real costs, risks, and ROI sit?

🔗 Book a financial intelligence audit with Curki.ai and get a custom report on how to:

  • Cut admin time by up to 30%

  • Unlock hidden revenue in your service mix

  • Prepare for audit in half the time

Start your audit today → www.curki.ai

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