Amputee Carolyn Becker was ‘left in limbo’ by the NDIS over IT failures
Amputee Carolyn Becker was ‘left in limbo’ by the NDIS, as others reveal four ways it can save $2b just by replacing outdated IT services to improve its response time.
Outdated technology is costing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) billions of dollars a year, as well as making the lives of participants hell.
Dodgy providers and fraudsters are also benefiting from the IT failures, an expert behind a new report says.
Leading think tank Mandala found that replacing old IT systems with smarter technology could generate more than $2 billion in annual productivity gains across the NDIS.
Managing partner Amit Singh said if similar improvements were rolled out across the whole care sector it could save the taxpayer $13 billion a year and improve the lives of providers and participants.
The report outlined four simple ways digital upgrades could transform the NDIS and save taxpayer money, including matching participants with the right providers through digital marketplaces, automating NDIS invoice generation and processing, streamlining referral pathways through a specialist platform, and allowing better data sharing so participants don’t have to keep retelling their story.
It could also better detect fraud.
“At the moment, that process of data matching or checking for fraud isn’t built on a system that actually allows you to do so easily,” Mr Singh said.
The report was commissioned by co-founder of Kismet, Mark Woodland, a platform which connects disability providers with participants.
The entrepreneur who is reportedly worth more than $50m, sold his previous company Xplore for an undisclosed sum after digitalising childcare in Australia before expanding it globally.
“You used to have to sign on a piece of paper to drop your child off,” Mr Woodland said. “Now that’s all digital.
“We also introduced payment systems that allowed parents to pay directly from their mobile phone instead of having to go into this childcare centre and give them cash so these are the types of efficiencies that don’t exist in the NDIS.”
He said the same digitalisation of the NDIS was needed to help cut administrative waste, inefficiencies and wait times.
He called for the Government to invest in an IT structure which could allow the private sector to come up with innovative ways to build on that.
He said while the report’s suggestions did not involve AI, the Government needed to keep pace with the new technology to avoid falling behind other countries.
Amputee Carolyn Becker, 54, from Toowoomba in Queensland, said the NDIS is clunky to navigate and she has spent hours on the phone sorting out problems that could have been avoided.
The mother-of-four’s worst example was the long wait for the agency to approve her prosthetic leg. The delay meant the nine weeks of rehab work she completed in preparation for the fitting of her new leg was wasted and had to be done again. It also stalled her plans to get a part-time job.
“I have been left in limbo a lot,” Ms Becker said.
“People have let me down with services that should have been provided.
“With my prosthetic leg it got to the stage where I was ringing them weekly to try and push it through. I actually lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman and suddenly things moved.”
NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said the Government has already introduced NDIS support lists, procured a new support needs assessment tool, and is working to make planning easier.
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