Pricing 2023-2024

By Rob Woolley DSC

The NDIA says it invested significantly in the markets for support coordination (the amount claimed rose by 15% to $428 million) and plan management (where the amount claimed rose by 14% to $228 million) over the six months leading to December 2022, compared to the same period the year prior.

One of the great unknowns of this pricing update: what is the NDIA saying about the future and role of level 1 support connection by increasing its price, but not levels 2 and 3? The service and business models of many support coordination providers cannot work with level 1. We await further information about the larger intent of this move, either from the NDIA themselves (who have said they see merits in establishing cost models for level 2 and 3 supports) or the NDIS Review.

Disability Intermediaries Australia (DIA) stated that this is the 4th consecutive price cut in real terms for plan management and support coordination - grim reading for those who are already grappling with moving goalposts, wage inflation, and increased business costs.

What is a concern is the uncertainty of the future of the intermediaries markets: an increase in the price for support connection but another year of no increase to support coordination, specialist support coordination and plan management will push many of those providers closer to the edge.

A consistent growth in a market doesn’t necessarily mean many service providers aren’t skating on increasingly thinner ice. The final report and recommendations from the NDIS Review may cast more light on what is in store.

It’s finally here! The document that group service providers have been waiting for has landed. But before you read the ‘GroupBased Supports Transition Guidance’, I’ve got bad news: it’s posed more questions than provided answers. For the last few years providers have been working only off the general rules in the Pricing Arrangements, and we had black, white and a bit of grey. This new guidance has given us 50 Shades of Grey except this is more painful for everyone involved (and this time not in the fun way).

A quick recap for those who haven’t been following this closely: in June 2020 the NDIA announced a fundamental change in the way group services (specifically Group & Centre Based Activities) were structured and billed. The deadline for this change was pushed back, then back again, then back again. In December last year the sector was promised a Transition Handbook to guide providers through the practicalities of the changes. This handbook has just been released.

The handbook was heralded as; supporting providers to understand the new pricing mode, would work in practice, and be able to be implemented. We’ve digested it and, frankly, we now have more questions and concerns than answers. If you weren’t sure whether a single sentence could be both clarifying and confusing, no need to wonder any more. It is #confusifying #clarifusing

The Chronicle and NewsCorp is launching a new NDIS accountability campaign, to examine abuse, neglect and inequity within the system.