Care minutes rebound, occupancy reaches new high

Care minute delivery has rebounded across every workforce category, shows Mirus Australia’s latest data snapshot of 90,000 aged care beds.

In June, care minute delivery reached 230.72 minutes per resident per day, signifying a 0.91 per cent increase.

Registered nurse minutes rose 2.32 per cent, now 47.81, while allied health minutes rose 6.70 per cent to 10.55 and diversional therapy and activities officer time jumped 10.49 per cent to 6.56.

The rebound follows months of decline as providers adjusted care delivery top the mandated care minute targets. It occurred amid occupancy climbing to its highest level since May 2017, reaching 93.29 per cent after five consecutive months of increases.

Short-stay occupancy, or stays under six months, decreased to 17.59 per cent of all stays nationally, which Mirus Australia noted as a continuation of the gradual compression pointing to a higher proportion of residents entering for long-term care.

Mirus Australia head of data and insights Tyler Fisher said that after several months of easing, the lift in care hours across every single category in the same month is not a rostering accident but a deliberate response to rising occupancy and case mix.

“The providers who manage this well are the ones treating care minute delivery as a planning discipline, not a compliance number they react to at quarter’s end. Our data increasingly shows which operators are building that capacity ahead of demand, and which are still chasing it,” Mr Fisher said.

Room prices rise, rate of re-pricing drops

The average advertised room price is up 0.41 per cent at $607,276 but the number of homes adjusting their prices has fallen. Just 68 homes raised their highest advertised room price – a sharp decline from the 168 in May – and 67 residential services increased their lowest advertised room price.

Mirus Australia noted this is the fewest price adjustments recorded in a single month since December 2025.

Following the June drop in services increasing the highest price, there has been a surge in the first half of July, Mr Fisher told Australian Ageing Agenda. As of 15 July, 362 services have increased their highest price this month to date. This points to providers holding back changes at the close of the financial year and initiating new pricing in the new financial year. This pattern also appeared across June and July last year, he said.

Meanwhile, the average daily subsidy in June was $313.96, up just 1 cent from May. But claiming activity across the industry rose to 7.02 per cent from 6.97 per cent in May.

But the “standout movement”, according to Mirus Australia, was the processing speed.

The national average time from reassessment request to completion fell to 15.93 days in June, an 11.97 per cent improvement from 18.09 in May and one of the fastest turnarounds recorded across recent data snapshots.

The gains were consistent across all remoteness categories.

Permanent admissions also rebounded in June, increasing 6.45 per cent to 5,047 nationally, and 3,497 in metropolitan areas – compared to 4,741 and 3,290 in May respectively. The average age of new admissions held steady at 85.1 years.

But respite-to-permanent conversion rates eased to 49.11 per cent, a 5.11 per cent decline from 54.22 per cent recorded in May. Mirus Australia said it will continue to monitor for signs of a sustained shift in care pathways.