Advocate for the Physiotherapy Profession.

Recent NDIA price limit changes:

You may be aware that the NDIA and recent government officials have regularly engaged in ‘the greedy provider narrative’. The narrative that is discussed comes from the NDIA looking at some data they have obtained (they have not released this data) and determining that clients using NDIS funding are being charged higher rates than the general public. This is factually incorrect and based of flawed analysis. See the NDIA APR report. The NDIA APR (Annual Pricing Review) comes off the back of the IPR (Independent Pricing Review). The IPR discusses the challenges within the current system.

Dr Helen Nicholson a well respected physiotherapist based in Sydney has posted an excellent breakdown of the current data and the NDIA Annual Pricing Review. I have attached a link to Dr Nicholson’s long review as it indicates that the narrative that has been provided in particular by NDIS minister’s is factually incorrect. Dr Nicholson’s review.

Typically we have never posted our prices or consultation times on the internet because different enquiries often requires different session times. Different funding models (DVA, Workcover, Private) typically have different billing rates for different session length or communication requirements. Placing these on the website typically creates another administrative duty for us at this busy time of year when our time is need to compete other end of financial year tasks along with ensuring price updates from various funding bodies are all loaded into our practice management software. In addition even within our practice private health insurance codes (eg code 505 - subsequent physiotherapy session) can have varied lengths depending on the needs during the consultation.

To make it clear what the difference are I have placed a screen shot of our private fees with comparative NDIS, WorkCover Qld, DVA etc. For ease of comparison I have extrapolated these to all 60 min consultations and have used standard fees not initial consultation fees. Keeping in mind that not all consultations have a typical length (eg vestibular v sprained ankle) and that different communications may be required for different funding. Some of these communications will be billed separately and some need to be absorbed in the consultation fee. Our aquatic physiotherapy sessions/hydrotherapy have a higher fee due to the nature of being unable to complete clinical notes in the pool and these needing to be completed out of the pool. We are awaiting the WorkCover Qld and DVA price changes for 2025-6. We also run DVA clients for 30 min consultations (while others run at 20 min which would be more cost effective however we feel these are clinically less effective). Some clinics have already implemented 20 min consultations for DVA clients. Instead we have capped the number of DVA clients and at this time we are at our limit. Typically we do not bulk bill - however we will be running a Head2Toes clinic for ages (0-12 month) between specific times of a Friday with Rhiannon and this looking at quickly determining if additional therapy will be needed. Think about this as a discounted initial session to assist young parents and prevent delays in accessing assessment and therapy. It is not designed as an ongoing support.

Petition:

If you are just as outraged about the changes that have come about following the flawed metrics used in the NDIS Independent Pricing Review. Please consider signing these petitions:

a) Australian Physiotherapy Association : Change.org
b) Occupational Therapy Australia
c) Speech Pathology Australia