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The current process of becoming an approved provider and applying for reaccreditation will change with the new Aged Care Act.
The transition to the new Act affects these registration and audit activities:
- provider approval, including applications to become an aged care service provider
- accreditation, including site audits and review audits
- assessment against the Quality Standards, including assessment contacts, performance assessments, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program quality reviews
- reconsideration and review, including if a provider asks us to reconsider and review our regulatory decisions.
Registration categories
Under the new Act, funded aged care services need to be delivered by a registered provider.
All providers of aged care services will need to be registered by the Commission, including organisations and individuals.
To become a registered provider under the new Act, an organisation or individual will need to apply and be registered by the Commission. Providers can be registered into one or more of 6 registration categories. Registration categories group together provider services based on similar types of care, complexity, and risk.
The 6 proposed registration categories are:
Category 1 – Home and community services
Category 2 – Assistive technology and home modifications
Category 3 – Advisory and support services
Category 4 – Personal care and care support in the home or community (including respite)
Category 5 – Nursing and transition care
Category 6 – Residential care (including respite)
These categories may be subject to further change.
We will register providers for a set period. We will then invite providers to renew their registration.
Registered providers will have obligations they must meet based on their registration categories. The Commission may also add conditions on a provider’s registration.
Changes to provider approvals
Under the new Act, applications for provider approval will change to an application for registration. All decisions to register a provider after Transition Day will be under the new Act.
If you apply for approval before Transition Day and your application has not been decided, we may ask you to give us more information, meet more requirements and pay extra fees. This can include increased fees for large providers and applicants for the residential care category.
If your application is in progress on Transition Day, we’ll send you a request for more information to help us decide to register you.
Other registration requirements and fees include:
- Applicants for categories 4, 5 and 6 will need to meet audit requirements before we can register them.
- We might charge a gap fee for applications made before Transition Day but decided under the new Act.
- Registration fees under the new Act are likely to be significantly higher than approval fees under the old law.
When we have all the information we need, applications for approval will become an application for registration.
Changes to accreditation
Accreditation activities, including site audits and review audits, will end under the new Act.
Audit and approval of residential care homes will replace accreditation.
Residential aged care services with accreditation expiring after Transition Day will be deemed to be approved residential care homes under the new Act. You will not need:
- reaccreditation
- a site audit
- to apply for accreditation.
Residential aged care services with accreditation expiring before Transition Day will need a site audit unless there are exceptional circumstances. The site audit will make sure their accreditation is valid on Transition Day and they can provide services at that site.
If your accreditation expires after Transition Day, please don’t submit an application for reaccreditation. If you already have, we’ll will contact you.
Site audits and other accreditation activities will end on 1 July 2025. However, we’ll continue to gather information, monitor and investigate residential aged care services to make sure providers comply with their responsibilities up to Transition Day.
If we find evidence of non-compliance before Transition Day, we may take regulatory action if that non-compliance is also with obligations under the new Act.
Assessment against the Quality Standards
Assessments against the Quality Standards, including assessment contacts, performance assessments, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) program quality reviews, will end under the new Act.
Audits will replace assessments and the strengthened Quality Standards will replace the Quality Standards.
Assessments against the Quality Standards need to finish before Transition Day. To do this, we may:
- do assessments quickly to finish them before Transition Day
- pause assessments to make sure everything finishes before the new Act begins.
If we find an issue close to Transition Day, we will still gather information, monitor and investigate to make sure providers continue to comply with their responsibilities.
If we find non-compliance with the Quality Standards before Transition Day, we may take regulatory action if the non-compliance is also with obligations under the new Act.
Further information
Reconsiderations and review
Most review and reconsideration rights and processes will continue under the law that applied at the time of the request for review.
Reviews or reconsiderations started before Transition Day will have the same time limits, communication and procedural fairness requirements as they have under the old law. The only exceptions are provider approval and accreditation decisions. These will end on Transition Day and be replaced by provider registration.
Transitioning providers to new provider registration categories
In preparation for the new Act, and to enable providers to continue to deliver care and services to older people, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing will move current providers to registration categories based on the current services they deliver or the services they are funded to provide. This is known as ‘deeming’.
The department has contacted providers to validate the information it has for their organisation to make sure they are placed in the correct categories.
There will be opportunities for providers to review and update any incorrect information on their registration details and proposed registration categories.
New providers
Prior to the new Act, new providers seeking to deliver government-funded aged care will need to apply in line with the current process.
We will provide more information on this as it becomes available.
Provider Registration Policy
Read our Provider Registration Policy. This explains the process and principles for registration. The policy includes information on:
- our registration model
- initial registration of providers
- approving residential care homes
- renewing registration
- changes the Commission can make to registration
- changes a provider can request to their registration
- the Provider Register
Guidance and resources
Our guidance material and resources are designed to support your registration and renewal experience.
We‘ll continue to release and update resources in the lead up to 1 July 2025. To keep up to date, sign up to our monthly newsletter.
- Becoming a registered provider and renewing your registration video
- Changing, suspending and revoking provider registration video
Further information
View our webinar on Provider Registration and Renewal in Practice and presentation slides.
For more information on the new aged care regulatory model and details on provider registration and registration renewal, visit the department’s website.
- Learn about the new aged care regulatory model
- Read how the new aged care regulatory model will work
- Details on the deeming process – transitioning providers to the new system
- Find out how providers can review their registration details and proposed registration categories
- Find out more about provider obligations and support
