To prepare for the new Act, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing will transition all current government-funded providers to the new system as registered providers. This process is called deeming.

Using existing data, the department will deem current government-funded aged care providers into one or more registration categories. They will base this on the services providers already deliver, or those required in funding agreements.

Deeming means they become a registered provider when the new Aged Care Act starts.

Providers then need to apply to renew their registration at the end of their registration period.

You can find more information at: The deeming process
 

Providers need to apply to us to renew their registration to keep delivering funded aged care services.

We start the registration renewal process before a provider’s registration expires. We invite you to renew your registration and give you a deadline for completing your registration renewal application form.

We do a Quality Standards audit if: 

• you’re renewing your registration in category 4, 5 and/or 6

• you’re applying to extend your registration into category 4, 5 or 6. 

In the audit we collect evidence from you to assess your governance arrangements, systems and processes. We observe and speak with older people and the workers delivering your funded aged care services to confirm your systems and processes. 

You’ll receive a rating against each of the Quality Standards relating to your conformance.

A provider can apply to the Commission to renew their registration by completing a registration renewal application form. The information you need to give us when applying to renew is like the information you gave us when you first registered. As part of our assessment, we consider any other information we have gathered or received during your registration. 

If you're renewing your registration in category 4, 5 and/or 6, this will include information and outcomes of the registration audit. For further information on the audit processes in registration renewal, please see the Audit Methodology and guidance. 

Approved residential care homes don’t need to be re-approved as part of the registration renewal process.  

Learn more about applying to renew your registration in:

• Provider Registration Policy – explains how renewal applications are created and processed for approval

A registered provider may want us to revoke their registration. If we revoke your registration, this ends your registration. This means you can no longer provide Australian Government-funded aged care services. 

You must request revocation before you stop providing services as a registered provider and exit the market. 

You also need to consider how this will affect the people using your service. You need to show that you’ve made plans so you don’t cause risk or harm to older people by stopping your services. 

If registered in category 6, you must show that you’ll:

• find suitable accommodation for older people currently in your care to move into. The new accommodation must meet their needs and preferences
• have enough cash to refund all refundable deposits of people currently in your care. 

When we consider your request to revoke your registration, we’ll look at these plans. We need to make sure your exit from the market doesn’t negatively affect older people. 

If we refuse to revoke a registration, this is a reviewable decision. You can apply for us to reconsider a reviewable decision. 

If your registration ends, we’ll update the Provider Register to reflect this. 

We can vary, suspend or revoke (cancel) a provider’s registration. We’ll only do this if we need to, to keep older people safe.

We assign all providers a supervision status. This status reflects our assessment of the level of risk to older people and helps us to make decision about what actions to take, including when we use a variation, suspension or revocation. We can engage with the provider to give them an opportunity to improve their system(s) before we consider whether to vary, suspend or revoke their registration. We consider all relevant factors and requirements under the Act before we make a decision to use these actions.  

Variation

We can vary a provider’s registration to: 

• add, change or revoke a condition of registration
• add or remove a category from registration
• reduce or extend the registration period
• remove an approved residential care home from registration (Category 6 only).

We’ll only vary your registration if it’s appropriate and the legislation allows us to.  If we make a decision to add a new condition, remove you from a registration category, or reduce your registration period, we will inform you and you will have an opportunity to respond (unless we are adding, changing or removing a condition and the risk to older people is immediate and severe, in which case we are not required by the Act to inform you). We will monitor provider progress through our case management and continue to engage with you to build knowledge and capability.

Change to an approved residential care home (category 6 only) 

If registered in category 6, we can:

• vary the total number of beds covered by the approval of a residential care home
• revoke approval of a residential care home.

Suspension 

We only suspend a provider’s registration if it’s appropriate for more serious compliance issues. If we suspend your registration, Australian Government funding will stop while you’re suspended. You still need to comply with your obligations if your registration is suspended.

Revocation 

If we revoke a provider’s registration, this ends their registration. The provider can no longer provide Australian Government-funded aged care services. 

We are cautious about revoking a provider’s registration. It’s a serious response, and it can have a harmful effect on people receiving aged care. We’ll first look at whether other responses could have a similar result without harming older people.

We may revoke a provider’s registration if: 

• we’ve already used other enforcement action, such as suspending registration
• the provider fails to fix its non-compliance or any other concerns.

The Commission may also issue a notice to agree in circumstances where the provider has had a notice of intention to revoke registration. The notice to agree allows a provider to agree to getting an eligible advisor to help the provider fix issues. It is also one of the types of conditions we can impose to support compliance with the notice to agree.

Some of our decisions to vary, suspend or revoke a provider’s registration are reviewable decisions. 

Learn more about Commission-imposed revocation, suspension or variation in:

• Provider Registration Policy – explains how the variation or suspension process works, and what may cause us to decide to impose these
• RB 2021-12 Reconsideration of reviewable decisions – information on reviewing a decision.