Aged care and health care

Growth in the aged care residential services sector is forecast to continue. Marsh supports this growth by providing detailed risk management and insurance strategies.

At Marsh, our Aged Care Practice provides risk management services to a large number of aged care clients throughout Australia. As the aged care industry undergoes constant change, providers must keep up with the often competing demands of clients and their communities, families, regulators and financial stakeholders.

It is an uphill challenge - even with increased government funding, the industry faces the need to adhere to higher standards in property construction and maintenance; the labour intensity of the work necessitates more trained labour; people now have a longer life expectancy and delay entry into aged care, leading to higher care requirements, all of which contributes to higher risks to profitability.

The scale and speed of legislative reform in the aged care industry is unprecedented, impacting nearly every aspect of the industry – process, compliance, corporate governance, risk, revenue, expenses and profitability.

Accredited Aged Care Providers are now required to mould, change, develop and expand their risk framework and insurance program to accommodate the changing landscape presented by the industry in which they operate in, particularly as the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety established in October 2018 is ongoing.

As we balance the needs of the clients and the overall aged care industry, and take into consideration the onerous legislative environment, we continue to provide accredited aged care providers with detailed risk management and insurance strategies.

Our solutions aim to improve operational resilience against risk, minimise the total cost of risk, reduce financial volatility and maximise the value of total spend whilst also helping you to work towards achieving your compliance requirements and assist to protect your reputation as an aged care provider.

Our Australian team is supported by the global Healthcare practice, which places more than USD1.25 billion in health care premium annually and serves clients across all sectors. This includes long-term care and senior housing hospitals, integrated delivery systems, academic medical centres, managed care organisations, clinical trial administrators and physician practice groups.

Our industry dedication brings innovative thought leadership to discuss and explore challenges faced by these organisations, e.g. rising medical malpractice claims, patient privacy and safety, pay standards, government regulation and funding changes, mergers and acquisitions.

Risk and insurance

As the health and aged care industry undergoes constant change, providers must keep up with the demands of both clients and their families. In this dynamic environment, businesses need to comply with government regulations, maintain quality services and control costs.

With an in-depth understanding of today’s aged care challenges, our team of health care insurance specialists work with you to identify, assess and prioritise the critical risks that may affect your business.

Some of the prominent industry risks that the Marsh Care Solutions Practice can assist with include:

Development of an insurance program to meet the specific needs of aged care facilities including impacts on business interruption.
Business Continuity Planning for Aged Care facilities
Governance structures and oversight for Boards
Regulatory compliance – Aged Care Act, Aged Care Quality Standards Accreditation, Royal Commission recommendations
Safety risks
Technology interruption, loss of data and hacking including cyber risk

People solutions

Amidst the many and varied challenges that aged care providers face, operators are required to attract and retain high-quality talent, whilst delivering considerate and compliant care.

To assist clients with this, Marsh Risk Consulting (MRC) has more than 80 consultants across the Pacific Region specialising in the management of all types of business risks including operational, financial and people risks. Within Australia, our MRC consultants specialise in the management of operational risks. We work with a wide range of public and private entities, assisting them with the transition of risk management from a corporate governance obligation to a comprehensive management approach that provides greater certainty in the achievement of organisational objectives, including the design of a fit-for-purpose insurance program.

Royal Commission updates

Associations

At Marsh Care Solutions we affiliate with a range of industry associations designed for the benefit of Aged Care community. We are proud to be a valued affiliate of LASA (Leading Age Services Australia), who represent and support aged care providers across residential care, home care and living.