From 1 July 2027, the monthly advance that residential aged care providers have relied on for years starts to disappear replaced, piece by piece, with payment in arrears for services actually delivered. By July 2029, the advance is gone entirely. The dollars don't change. The timing, and the discipline behind them, will.
It's an administrative change with operational consequences.
The mechanics are straightforward, even if the implications aren't:
- Over two financial years, the monthly advance reduces on a straight-line basis to zero — stepping down by 4.17 per cent of the original advance each month, so that by 30 June 2029 the entire monthly entitlement is paid in arrears after Services Australia reconciles your claim.
- You will still lodge a claim with Services Australia at the end of each calendar month. Arrears payments will still be issued where your advance falls short of your actual entitlement.
- The two-year glide path is also designed to give providers time to adjust alongside existing reforms and the new Liquidity Standards in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's Financial and Prudential Standards.
The Government is bringing residential aged care into line with how it pays for other services including Support at Home, where claims are paid only after a service has been delivered.
For providers used to receiving an advance at the start of each month, this is a meaningful shift in cash flow rhythm. Today the advance is calculated on an estimated case mix from two months prior. From mid-2027, an increasing share of revenue will arrive only after the month closes and the claim is reconciled. That puts a premium on three things:
- Forecasting accuracy. If you can't see what your AN-ACC mix is doing, you can't predict what your arrears top-up will look like and you can't plan working capital against it.
- Claim integrity. Every resident, every classification, every reassessment now sits closer to the money. Errors that used to wash out in monthly reconciliation will surface as cash flow events.
- Compliance alignment. The Liquidity Standards land alongside this reform. Boards will want assurance that working capital, care minute targets and AN-ACC performance are all moving in the same direction.
This is precisely the space Mirus Metrics is built for. It gives providers a single, centralised view of AN-ACC forecasting, validation and scenario planning drawing data directly from Medicare so the picture refreshes daily, not quarterly.
Specifically, it supports the three disciplines this reform demands:
- Forecasting accuracy. Forecasted AN-ACC classifications for current residents and pre-admission prospects, plus scenario planning to model the impact of admissions, discharges and reclassifications on case mix, care minutes and Average Daily Subsidy — giving finance teams a defensible view of expected entitlement before each month closes.
- Claim integrity. Daily visibility of resident claims against quarterly targets, so unfunded care time and reclassification opportunities are surfaced early, well before they become a reconciliation surprise.
- Compliance alignment. Validation and data assurance for care minute targets and classifications, backed by KPI dashboards and benchmarking against industry data covering more than 60,000 beds — so boards can see how working capital, care minutes and AN-ACC performance are tracking together.
As the system moves from "estimate first, reconcile later" to "deliver first, claim after", the providers who'll be ahead are those who already manage AN-ACC as a daily operational process — not a monthly accounting one.
The shift to payment on services delivered will reward providers who already have their AN-ACC house in order. Mirus Metrics is how that gets done.
