MS Australia is extremely disappointed with last week’s release of the 2024-25 NDIS Pricing Review.
Together with the broader sector, we are concerned by the decision to reduce pricing for essential therapy supports including physiotherapy, dietetics and podiatry.
These reductions along with no increases in pricing for level 2 and level 3 support coordination and plan management will put further pressure on our Member Organisations who deliver essentials services to people living with MS and other neurological conditions.
Our Member Organisations are already subsidising the delivery of services, proving many hours of unfunded support coordination and plan management. This latest pricing decision further threatens the viability of many providers, including our Members, who provide vital tailored disease specific services.
Ultimately the latest pricing decision impacts people living with disability who will no longer be able to access the vital services they require.
Over the past decade and across more than 30 policy submissions, MS Australia has actively advocated on behalf of people living with MS for improvements to the NDIS. During the NDIS Review MS Australia campaigned for improvements to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) under the banner – A Better NDIS for People living with MS – calling for six essential reforms to improve the NDIS for the MS community.
While the Review’s final recommendations were closely aligned to our asks, and the campaign successfully achieved its number one ask – the establishment of a neurological advisory body within the National Disability Insurance Agency – last week’s announcement regarding NDIS pricing is a reminder, if any was needed, of how much reform remains to be actioned, both within the National Disability Insurance Agency, and the broader disability sector.
A reminder too, that the Government is yet to formally respond to the NDIS Review Final Report, despite promising to do so in December 2024.
MS Australia is calling the NDIA to urgently consider the impacts of these pricing arrangements and to establish clear independent pricing including releasing the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority’s review of NDIS pricing.
MS Australia will also meet with Government Minister and their Opposition counterparts in the coming weeks to express our concern.
For further information regarding the NDIS Pricing Review, please see summary below or visit the NDIS website to download the Report.
The 2024-25 NDIS Pricing Review Summary
Recommendations from the review will take effect from 1 July 2025.
The following changes have been made:
- Increasing Disability Support Worker Supports related supports by 3.95% in line with increases in minimum wage and Superannuation Guarantee. This includes Level 1 support coordination
- Reducing price limits for physiotherapy to $183.99 per hour which represents:
- A $10.00 per hour reduction in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and the ACT
- A $40.66 per hour reduction in the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia (loadings for these states have been removed), meaning that prices in these areas will reduce
- Reducing price limits for Dietetics and Podiatry $5.00 to a new national price limit of $188.99 per hour
- Reducing the rate and cap on travel claims for therapy supports, limiting the total claimable amount for labour time component, to no more than 50% of the applicable therapy
- Prices for therapy supports will now be presented in 10-minute increments with the aim of encouraging greater flexibility
- There are no price increases for occupational therapy, speech pathology or exercise physiology
- There has been no increase to prices for level 2 and level 3 support coordination or plan management
- Plan managers will no longer be able to claim for the costs of setting up participant plans in the system, and remote and very remote loadings will no longer apply to plan management supports.
Changes to pricing of note include:
- The NDIA will adjust the Annual Pricing Review cycle so that future pricing recommendations are finalised earlier in the year and published well in advance of the financial year.
- The review of pricing this year was undertaken by the NDIAs Independent Pricing Committee and the NDIA seem committed to using this Committee to review pricing going forward. There is no mention of pricing moving to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA).
- The NDIA have agreed to develop a three-year workplan to implement the pricing reforms proposed by the IPC.
- The NDIA will undertake a review of therapy pricing – the review will assess whether existing price limits remain fit for purpose and will inform the development of differentiated pricing approaches aligned with the framework proposed by the IPC. The review will consider factors such as practitioner qualifications, workforce availability, service settings, regulatory obligations, and the nature of participant outcomes achieved. It will be informed by sector consultations and analysis of provider and market data. The review will be conducted over an 18-month period, with findings and recommendations to be finalised by late 2026. These will inform the next pricing reset for therapy supports as part of the 2026-27 Pricing Review.
