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How to manage the cost of shorter visits under SAH
Support at Home (SAH) reforms are making shorter home care visits more common, giving participants more flexible, personalised care.
For providers, however, this shift brings a cost challenge. Fixed overheads like administration, travel, and compliance don’t shrink with shorter visits, making each one more expensive to deliver.
On top of this, providers will no longer charge separately for Package Management and must work with halved Care Management caps. Many are looking to recover lost revenue through higher service-level pricing.
StewartBrown’s August 2025 survey of 82 providers (covering 95,673 packages) found that 47% of providers charge higher hourly rates for shorter visits to cover fixed costs.
Raising prices helps, but it’s not the only fix. Smarter scheduling, bundling visits, and using automation can reduce the extra costs created by short visits.
In this blog, we explain how you can use home care platforms like AlayaCare to make shorter visits more efficient without stretching budgets or staff.
Why shorter visits cost more
Across the industry, providers are feeling the pressure to cover costs even when visits are brief. Key reasons include:
- Fixed overheads: Even a 30-minute visit comes with the same travel, reporting, and administrative work as a longer visit, so costs don’t scale down.
- Travel inefficiencies: Short visits across suburbs add non-billable travel time. StewartBrown reports average transport costs of $105 per trip, with providers charging by distance, time, or both.
- Pricing complexity: Short visits are usually more expensive per hour to cover fixed costs. Rates can also vary by location or by the type of visit, such as initial assessments versus follow-ups.
The good news is that while short visits can be costly, there are ways to cut overheads. Smarter workflows, better scheduling, and automation can all help. We’ll walk you through how in the next section.
Using AlayaCare to streamline workflows under SAH
StewartBrown’s August 2025 survey shows AlayaCare is the most widely adopted home care platform in the sector. Built specifically to support providers under SAH, our software is ready to help reduce the extra costs created by shorter visits while improving staff efficiency and client experience. Here are four ways it can help.
1. Dynamic rostering and scheduling
AlayaCare’s rostering feature matches carers to clients based on location, skills, and availability. This reduces travel time, minimises rejected visits, and ensures staff are used efficiently.
Tools like the Visit Optimiser help managers plan daily schedules to make the most of every minute, keeping visits on track and protecting slim margins.
Visits can also be bundled, combining geographically close clients or multiple care tasks into a single trip to cut travel costs and maximise productive hours.
Learn more: Absolute Care & Health enhanced efficiency with Visit Optimiser.
2. Budgeting and forecasting
Our forecasting tool gives providers a clear, real-time view of each client’s Support at Home budget. Directly integrated with Services Australia, it pulls the latest authorised funding so teams can instantly see total quarterly budgets without leaving AlayaCare Cloud.
Interactive charts track planned and delivered services against each client’s approved amount. Managers can spot under- or overspend early, adjust schedules, and plan with confidence. Detailed breakdowns show what’s funded by the government versus client contributions, helping providers stay financially sustainable while delivering the right care at the right time.
3. Improved risk management
The Client Intelligence Suite is designed for early risk detection and proactive care.
It ensures that even short visits capture critical information and that staff can act quickly when issues arise.
For example, Absolute Health & Care used the Client Intelligence Suite to flag risks and improve support worker/client matches. This resulted in an 80% drop in missed incidents and a 50% reduction in refusals of service.
Learn more: Absolute Care & Health sees an 80% drop in missed incidents.
4. AI-powered assistance
Our conversational AI assistant, Layla, gives your team answers fast.
When carers have back-to-back visits, they can quickly pull health overviews, key points from previous progress notes, or summarise notes from the current visit without sifting through files.
AI is already making a big difference in healthcare administration. Citi Global Insights estimates AI-driven automation could cut 25%-30% of administration costs, while McKinsey projects the use of AI, traditional machine learning, and deep learning could deliver up to $360 billion in net savings across healthcare spending.
By reducing administrative tasks, AI tools like Layla act as a team superpower, giving staff more time to focus on what matters most: delivering high-quality care.
Learn more: Three ways AI can help your home care team today
Benefits for staff, clients, and budgets
Optimising workflows benefits everyone: staff spend less time on travel and admin, costs per visit drop, and clients enjoy more consistent, personalised care. Bundling visits, using dynamic rostering, and leveraging tools like AI assistance ensures efficiency without compromising quality.
Shorter visits are here to stay under SAH. Providers who embrace these workflow improvements can balance affordability, care quality, and staff wellbeing.
AlayaCare is designed to help providers succeed under SAH. Get in touch with our friendly team to learn how we can support your home care operations today.
