NDIS providers paid $45m to reveal real disability care costs in major review

Disability providers will open their books in exchange for $45m in grants as part of an NDIS costs review, but those in the sector say the probe is just a distraction from ongoing cuts and freezes.

Exclusive:NDIS providers will open their books to the agency running the $52 billion-a-year scheme because it wants to see the true cost of looking after people with a disability.

Aruma, Northcott, Yooralla and Multicap — which between them care for more than 2000 people with a disability across Australia — are among the Supported Independent Living providers chosen to take part in the new pilot scheme.

A second pilot will focus on the price of providing support co-ordination and a third has just been added to examine the cost of therapy.

Providers taking part in the three pilot schemes will share $45 million in grant funding to offset the costs of working with the NDIA in collecting data on how they operate and support NDIS participants.

NDIS providers will open their books to the agency running the $52 billion-a-year scheme because it wants to see the true cost of looking after people with a disability.

The move to include therapists in a pilot follows an outpouring of anger from Australian providers after the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) board froze – and in some cases cut – pay for providers for the sixth year in a row.

Therapists were particularly affected by the move this year, with travel allowances being a new area where cuts were made.

Around 70,000 people have signed a petition calling for the cuts to be reversed, with peak bodies saying there has already been an exodus of quality providers.

The NDIA said data from the pilots will inform future approaches to therapy pricing and the results should be available in about 12 months time.

The new NDIS minister Senator Jenny McAllister said it was important to make sure the agency goes out of its way to understand the providers that deliver quality services across the scheme.

New NDIS minister Senator Jenny McAllister. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We want to make sure that our quality providers in the scheme are viable for the long term,” Minister McAllister said.

“The pilots are designed to support the market to deliver quality services that are appropriately priced and support the diverse needs of people with a disability, including those with complex support needs.”

However, those in the sector said the NDIA already has all the information it needs to protect quality providers.

Disability Intermediaries Australia chief Jess Harper said 600 support co-ordination businesses closed in the previous financial year due to the ongoing pay freeze.

This year 42 have already exited.

Disability Intermediaries Australia chief Jess Harper.

Physiotherapist David Dinca.

“Quality providers have greater levels of expense,” Mr Harper said.

“They’re not cutting corners like dodgy providers. They’re doing everything that they’re supposed to be doing.”

He said the latest business to announce it was closing its support co-ordination due to the price freeze was Interchange, which services about 150 NDIS participants.

David Dinca, who runs a physiotherapy business, said the announcement that there would be a pilot looking at the cost of providing therapy was just a distraction and he was sceptical it would lead to any action.

“The information they want is already available,” Mr Dinca said.

“This is just to say they are doing something.”

Meanwhile, a number of people with disability have been selected to sit on the NDIS Reform Advisory Committee, joining co-chairs El Gibbs and Dougie Herd.

The new committee will play a key role in the complex and difficult process of reforming the NDIS to make the scheme better and fairer.