The NDIS price guide, also known as Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, is essentially the NDIS rule book that sets out how participants can spend their plan budgets. Released annually, it lists thousands of line items and changes on a regular basis to reflect market trends, regulatory developments, and other factors.
As you can imagine, using the NDIS price guide correctly requires some serious know-how and a solid understanding of how the NDIS defines each support category. The NDIS defines each of its supports in a way that allows participants to make the most out of their allocated plan budgets by ensuring providers are charging the maximum rate possible for each individual support.
The price limits in the NDIS Price Guide are reviewed annually to ensure that they remain competitive with other providers and to account for economic changes, including inflation. The NDIS price guide also reflects the cost of providing a support service, including wages and other costs such as operating expenses. For example, in the 2021 Price Guide, there was a 9% increase in price limits to take into account changes in the SCHADS Industry Award, COVID-19 costs and the introduction of a single price limit for High Intensity supports.
Each year, the NDIS also increases the maximum rate that can be charged for each support item based on the Consumer Price Index, which is the measurement used to calculate increases in the price of goods and services, and the increase in the average wage. This is to help ensure that the NDIS is remaining competitive, and that the maximum rate remains sustainable in the long-term.
If you’re a provider, it’s important to be aware of changes to the NDIS price guide because if your invoices aren’t compliant, you could face consequences such as not receiving payment or having a participant report you to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The NDIS can also require you to reissue an invoice that is compliant with the new pricing arrangements.
The NDIS Price Guide isn’t a comprehensive list of all supports available to participants, and there are many items that don’t have price limits and don’t appear in the NDIS Price Guide. However, the NDIS emphasises that participants should have choice and control, which includes freedom of choice for their providers. The NDIS also recognises that participants should be able to cancel their support with a provider without paying an exit fee.
Within the NDIS Price Guide, each support is defined by a ‘line item’, which is made up of a brief description of the support and a unique code. This is used to identify each line item on an invoice or claim, and is how the NDIS checks that a claim matches the NDIS Price Guide.
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