Consider a nursing agency owner who's comfortable with clinical work but wary of government claiming. She's heard enough horror stories about aged care portals, rejected claims and clients confused about what they owe. Before she signs anything, she wants the money side drawn on a single page: how a client gets set up to claim, how her invoices turn into payment, who chases the client's contribution, and what it costs her to be part of the arrangement.

This example is illustrative, created to show how the local partner model works in practice.

Fair questions, and worth answering plainly. Here's the money side of the local partner model, start to finish.

Setting clients up to claim: MAC portal and our NAPS ID

Before anything can be claimed, each client has to be correctly established. You work with our team to set up new clients under the My Aged Care (MAC) portal, with claiming made under Partner with Care's NAPS ID (our National Approved Provider System identifier). You don't need your own provider registration to do this — that's the whole point of the partnership. We guide you through the setup so each client is properly linked before services start being claimed.

How you invoice and get paid

The flow is deliberately simple. You send us your service invoice. We incorporate it into the Service Australia claim. We remit you the full amount, minus our processing fee. You deliver the work and bill it; we do the government-facing claiming and pay you. There are no client households to chase for the funded portion and no claiming portal for you to wrestle with.

The three-step version: (1) you invoice us for services delivered; (2) we claim it through Service Australia under our NAPS ID; (3) we pay you the invoiced amount less our processing fee. For the wider picture of who carries what, see getting paid under Support at Home.

Client co-contributions

Some clients have a co-contribution to pay toward their services, depending on their circumstances under Support at Home. Where that applies, you invoice the client directly for the co-contribution amount. To make that accurate, we provide you with the co-contribution figures after the claim is processed, so you're never guessing at what a client owes. It keeps the funded portion and the client portion cleanly separated.

What it costs to join

The pathway for growing partners generally carries no upfront establishment fee. It runs on Partner with Care's standard service and administration structure — the processing fee is applied to claims, rather than a cost to join. Onboarding, training, and access to our processes and governance framework are included as part of getting set up. As your client numbers and capability grow, there's also room to progress into an established-partner arrangement.

A note on rates and current rules

Government price arrangements apply under Support at Home, and the specifics can change, so rather than quoting figures here we'd point you to current Department of Health, Disability and Ageing guidance and a conversation about how it applies to your services. For how pricing decisions sit with you, see pricing your services under Support at Home. When you're ready to see the numbers against your own service mix, the become a partner page is the place to start.