Residential care

Step 2: ACAT assessment

As well as choosing the right type of aged care support, making sure it is affordable, is important to ensure you can access the care you need. ​

The government may subsidise your care choices – but only if you have approval from an Aged Care Assessment Team/Service (ACAT/ACAS).​

You will need to be over age 65 (or 50+ if you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander). If you are younger, you might wish to look at what support is available from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) ​

The actions you need to take to arrange your assessment are outlined below including some tips on what to expect and how to be ready. It could take several weeks to get an assessment – so don’t leave it to the last minute. ​


Key things to know


Actions

1

Start the process

Contact My Aged Care to check your eligibility. You can phone on 1800 200422 or use the online tool. You will need to have 15-20 minutes to complete this initial assessment – but note that if you are calling you may also have to wait to get through. ​

2

Arrange an assessment

If you meet the requirements for an ACAT/ACAS assessment, My Aged Care will pass on your details to the assessment team. You should expect a phonecall to arrange the assessment time – usually this will be a face-to-face assessment in your home (or in hospital if you are a current patient). If you have nominated someone else to be your contact point, ACAT/ACAS will contact that person to make the arrangements. ​

3

Have the assessment

The assessor will usually come to your home, but if you are in hospital it might happen towards the end of your stay. Expect the appointment to take around 1.5 hours. Have your Medicare card and photo ID ready.​

4

Get your results

The assessor will prepare a letter and send you a copy in the mail. This may arrive a couple of weeks after your assessment. This letter will show what services you have been approved for and include a support plan. The letter will also include a unique referral code. When you are choosing a residential care provider, they will ask for this code.​


My Aged Care Online Account

After you have registered with My Aged Care you will have a personal Online Account created. This is where you will be able to:​

  • Access your aged care ID number​
  • Update your contact details​
  • Decide what electronic notifications you want to receive to ensure you do not miss important messages​
  • Find your referral code that needs to be given to the aged care provider to access government subsidies​
  • Find a copy of letters sent to you by My Aged Care​

The first time you want to access your Online Account, you will need to log into your MyGov account and add My Aged Care as a service. Click here for help with these steps. After you have linked the accounts, you will be able to just log into My Gov and select the My Aged Care tile.​

If you have nominated someone else to be your My Aged Care contact point, an Online Account will be set up for that person and this can be accessed through their MyGov account.


You are ready to find a care provider

Now that you have the approvals in place, you are ready to find and select a care provider. You don’t have to wait for the approvals to start your search, but you may not be able to start any services until the approval is finalised and you have the approval letter from ACAT/ACAS.​

When you are ready move onto the next step – Choosing your care provider.