The NDIA have released the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue for 2019-2020 and you’ll be noticing some increases in your NDIS plans as a result from 1st July.
There are updates relating to price increases, as well as other changes. Most of the updates are an outcome of the Annual Price Review.
Have you received a copy of your new plan outlining the new increases? It’s worth having a look and going over what amounts have changed.
Price increases across listed supports
- 4.5% for supports listed under Assistance with Daily Activities and Social and Community Participation
- 2.3 % for capacity building supports, including support coordination and therapy
- 1.3% for supports listed under Consumables, Assistive Technology and Home Modification and Specialised Disability Accommodation
Does this mean I have all this extra funding in my plan?
Yes and No. While you should see an increase in your plans, you will also see an increase in your invoices as providers apply the new price guide from 1st July.
This means you won’t get any extra hours unless your providers rates stay the same as it all works out in the wash.
Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP)
Providers of attendant care and community and centre based activities have access to a TPP.
This gives these providers access to a higher support price limit. The TPP is a conditional loading. It aims to help providers with any costs incurred during transition to the NDIS.
The TPP starts at 7.5 % on the relevant level 1 support item and reduces by 1.5% each year.
Providers must be aware of the requirements of this payment as outlined in the Price Guide.
What you need to know:
This is ONLY available for NDIS registered providers AND they must have a new service agreement with you AND must claim this TPP item separately.
- Ask your plan managers to notify you if they see a TPP claim on any invoices
- Ask your services if they are going to apply the TPP payment.* Check with your Local Area Coordinator or Planner to make sure that the TPP payment has been applied to your plan.
- Ensure you have a change to your service agreements for any providers charging TPP
- Your provider MUST be NDIS registered to be able to claim. This does not apply to non registered providers.
* Participant Plans are supposed to be indexed for TTP, but the NDIS originally said no, so we can’t confirm whether you’ll see this amount in your plans or not. Get in touch with your planner if you don’t have it.
New other billing and payments info
Some providers can now claim for non-face-to-face direct-care-related activities. The activities can be claimed as hours of support against the relevant support item. The activities are billable if they are part of delivering a disability support item. They do not include general administrative tasks.
Cancellations
A short cancellation/no show now is now defined as:
- Failure to provide two clear business days’ notice for a support/service which is eight hours or less and less than $1,000
- Five clear business days’ notice in all other cases
Providers can claim 90% of the fee associated with the cancellation.
We don’t agree with this one as it’s often not 2 / 5 business days when stuff goes down at home. However, the support funding is still there, so at least it should reflect you needed it and keep stable supports for those workers who are cancelled. Let’s hope that organisations are passing on the payment to their workers.
Travel
Support Providers can claim more for travel time between appointments. Travel can be claimed for up to 30 minutes in city areas, and 60 minutes in regional areas.
Providers of Capacity Building supports are also able to charge for the return back to their workplace.
Support Coordination
Support Coordinators will be able to claim for travel, cancellations and report writing. This has always been the way (except for travel) as report writing, non face to face work is such a large part of the role. Now, it is just clearer for all parties.
Note: P2P Support Coordinators do not charge for cancellation except where costs are incurred. We know sometimes things happen.
Therapy Services
There are now two support levels for therapy assistants. The levels were introduced to provide more flexibility and cost-effective services. Providers can also apply billing arrangements for therapy assistants. These include travel, cancellations and non-face-to-face time.
Note and this is a big one for our families – Therapy Assistants now need to come under the guidance AND insurance of the Allied Health Therapist who has constructed the therapy plan. This is going to make it more difficult for people to use this budget, and should go back to their planner, if more funding is needed for therapy programs, if this can’t be used.
Assistive Technology (AT)
The Assistive Technology and Consumables Guide has also been updated. Changes include a renaming of ‘Daily Adaptive Equipment’ funding, which was used by some participants to purchase low risk or cost AT. This has been renamed to ‘Low Cost AT.’
There is also a list of items for decommissioning along with suggested replacement items.
Also some of our families pointed out that there seemed to be a $500 limit. The NDIS has confirmed this is not true, but that the AT is set out in units of $500 so when claiming a $1000 item that is 2 x $500 units. Note: The AT levels apply as to what is considered low cost and not requiring a report and quote from a specialist.
And one last thing – You must agree to these things:
The NDIS has stressed that if providers increase their charges as a result of these changes, the people they support must be in agreement. An increase of charges should also be updated in service agreements. Changes must comply with the conditions set out in the Price Guide. For a more detailed breakdown of the changes, look at the Annual Price Review page and the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue 2019-2020.