The Commonwealth Ombudsman has issued a scathing report on the aged care algorithm, saying it has led to unfair outcomes for residents and undermined public confidence in the system.
What we know:
- The report said the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing had put the algorithm in place “without any meaningful risk assessment, evaluation or analysis, despite the obvious risks that would arise with deterministic automated decision-making” (ABC).
- The ombudsman made a total of 10 recommendations, with six being accepted by the government. Among them is a comprehensive review of the Aged Care Act in relation to the assessment process to “identify legal defects, inconsistencies, ambiguities or unintended consequences” (ABC).
- Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said legislation had to be amended to let aged care assessors override clinically incorrect algorithmic decisions, which was a recommendation not accepted by the government (The Guardian).
- The investigation also found transparency recommendations from the robodebt royal commission had been ignored (The Guardian).
Exclusive: Unprecedented automation in NDIS decisions (The Saturday Paper)