🇦🇺Australia

Überhöhte Beschaffungskosten und Lagerbestände bei Hilfsmitteln

3 verified sources

Definition

The Review of Assistive Technology Programs in Australia notes that AT is “procured under disparate and disconnected programs, representing a lost opportunity to leverage the breadth and reach of a national approach,” and proposes that an AT Solutions provider could be contracted to undertake AT procurement and supply across programs.[5] The Australian Assistive Technology Equity Studies highlight lack of equity and consistency across 108 non‑NDIS schemes and emphasise the need for efficient procurement and customisation, delivery, setup, and maintenance.[3] The proposed new Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT‑HM) Scheme for aged care, based on a ‘loan‑before‑buy’ principle with a central pool of equipment to be loaned, refurbished and redistributed, explicitly aims to reduce procurement waste and improve sustainability.[1] In the current system, individual providers and schemes often purchase low‑cost AT outright without coordinated loan pools or refurbishment pathways, leading to equipment being abandoned or left unused when needs change, particularly in vocational rehabilitation where workplace roles may change rapidly. Repeated individual trials of similar equipment for different clients, without shared data and stock management, increase clinician time, courier costs and equipment write‑offs.

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: Quantified (logic-based): For low‑cost AT (under AUD 1,500 per item) across a vocational rehab provider’s caseload, assume 1,000 items purchased annually at an average cost of AUD 500 each (AUD 500,000 total). If 10–20% of items are later found unsuitable, cannot be reused, or sit idle due to lack of loan/refurbish systems, this equates to AUD 50,000–100,000 in direct product wastage. Add 300–500 hours of clinician and admin time per year spent on repeated supplier quotes, ad‑hoc orders and stock management at blended AUD 80/hour (AUD 24,000–40,000). Combined cost overrun: approximately AUD 75,000–140,000 per medium provider, and AUD 150,000–500,000 for larger multi‑site operations.
  • Frequency: Common across all AT procurement cycles, especially for low‑cost, high‑use equipment in vocational rehab where client needs and job requirements change frequently, and where no central loan/refurb system exists.
  • Root Cause: Disparate AT procurement processes under multiple schemes; absence of coordinated national or regional procurement and loan pools for many AT categories; manual selection and ordering without consolidated product catalogues or demand forecasting; lack of refurbishment and redistribution pathways; clinicians individually managing supplier relationships and quotes.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: AT and vocational rehabilitation providers in Australia 🇦🇺 waste an estimated AUD 150,000–500,000 per year on inefficient one‑off purchasing, unused stock and duplicated assessment‑trial cycles. Centralised, data‑driven AT procurement and loan management can cut these costs by 15–30%.

Affected Stakeholders

Procurement officers and purchasing staff in rehab organisations, Occupational therapists and AT advisors specifying equipment, Store and equipment loan pool managers, Finance managers responsible for capital and consumables budgets

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Financial Impact

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Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Nicht abgerechnete Leistungen bei AT‑Assessments und Beschaffung

Quantified (logic-based): For a medium provider performing ~1,000 AT assessment/procurement episodes per year, if 5–10% of episodes involve 1–2 hours of assessment/procurement time that cannot be billed or is rejected (1.5 hours average at AUD 180/hour clinical rate), this equals 75–150 hours/year or AUD 13,500–27,000 in direct unbilled labour. Adding 1–2 large equipment orders per month written off due to funding ineligibility or missed prior approval (24 per year at average margin AUD 1,500) adds ~AUD 36,000/year. Total indicative revenue leakage: ~AUD 50,000–60,000 per site, or AUD 100,000–300,000 for multi‑site providers.

Kundenabwanderung durch langsame und uneinheitliche Versorgung mit Hilfsmitteln

Quantified (logic-based): Assume a mid‑size vocational rehabilitation provider relies on AT‑related rehab contracts averaging AUD 2,000 in revenue per client (assessments plus follow‑up). If slow AT turnaround causes 2–4 referring employers or insurers per quarter to divert 5–10 cases each to alternative providers, that is 40–160 lost cases per year. At AUD 2,000 per case, this equals AUD 80,000–320,000 in annual lost revenue. This is in addition to any contractual penalties or reduced preferred‑provider status that may further reduce referral volume over time.

Fehlentscheidungen bei der Auswahl von Hilfsmitteln und Finanzierungswegen

Quantified (logic-based): For high‑cost AT (up to AUD 15,000 under proposed AT‑HM tiers), assume a vocational rehab provider prescribes 50 such items per year. If 10–20% of these prescriptions result in sub‑optimal choices (e.g., equipment abandoned, replaced early, or not fully funded due to misaligned applications), and the avoidable portion of cost per affected case averages AUD 2,000–4,000 (either in wasted equipment or additional assessment/procurement effort), the annual financial impact is approximately AUD 10,000–40,000. Across a network of providers or large organisations managing hundreds of AT prescriptions, this can scale to AUD 100,000–400,000 per year in preventable decision‑error costs.

Nicht abrechenbare Leistungen durch fehlende oder verspätete Kostengenehmigungen

Quantified (LOGIC): For a medium‑sized vocational rehabilitation provider billing ~AUD 3–5 million p.a., 2–3 % of services delivered without valid pre‑approval or outside program rules are typically written off, equalling ca. AUD 60.000–150.000 jährlicher Umsatzverlust.

Verwaltungsaufwand durch komplexe Zulassungs- und Autorisierungsanforderungen

Quantified (LOGIC): A provider managing multi‑jurisdiction approvals typically requires 0,5–1,0 FTE of administrative/compliance staff solely for authorisation and approval maintenance at fully loaded costs of ca. AUD 80.000–120.000 p.a.; at least 30–70 % of this time (AUD 24.000–84.000) is pure overhead driven by manual, fragmented processes rather than necessary content work.

Verzögerte Zahlungen durch unvollständige oder nicht konforme Leistungsdokumentation

Quantified (LOGIC): If 15–25 % of invoices are queried and delayed by 30–60 days due to documentation or data issues, and the provider bills ca. AUD 4 Mio. p.a., the financing and admin impact corresponds grob zu AUD 40.000–100.000 pro Jahr (zusätzliche Zins- bzw. Kontokorrentkosten von 1–3 % auf den betroffenen Forderungsbestand plus 0,2–0,4 FTE Sachbearbeiter für Klärungen).

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