The NDIS recently released the 2025 Annual Pricing Review (APR) Recommendations, which will be implemented as of July 1st 2025. There are quite a few changes that will impact a number of people and providers currently providing NDIS supports
Find out in more details about the changes below, including:
What do the latest NDIS price changes mean for you?
The Annual Pricing Review includes 17 recommendations to help make NDIS pricing more consistent, fair, and based on real evidence. The goal is to make sure prices give good value, are fair for everyone, and help keep the NDIS market strong and sustainable.
Below we have outlined the changes in the Annual Pricing review including:
Who is impacted by the NDIS pricing changes?
The APR report contains 17 recommendations. Recommendations 1 & 2 – reflect how the NDIA will structure and work on the current and future pricing reviews, and the remaining 15 recommendations are grouped into 4 key support areas:
- Nursing & Disability Support Workers (DSW)
- Therapy services
- Therapy Prices
- Support Connections, support coordination and recovery coaches
- Plan Management
If you have a current NDIS plan with unspent funds as of 30 June 2025, the NDIS will automatically adjust your plan for these changes.
This means that if your support prices have increased, you’ll still be able to access them without any extra cost
NOTE: Service agreements with providers will need to be updated (I know, what a pain!)
The Independent Pricing Committee (IPC), established in September 2024 is tasked with reviewing current pricing models and suggesting improvements.
Nursing & Disability Support Workers
There will be an increase in pricing limits for nursing and some other supports.
Prices will be increased by 3.5% in line with the national minimal wage released by the Fair Work Commission
Therapy Services
We will see an increase in some therapy support rates, decrease in others, and more flexibility in timing and how supports can charge for travel costs.
Psychologists
A single price limit will be set across Australia, so the cost of services will be the same no matter which state or territory you’re in.
The national price limit will increase by $10.00 – new price limit is $232.99/hr (as of July 1st 2025)
Physiotherapists
A single price limit will be set across Australia, so the cost of services will be the same no matter which state or territory you’re in.
The national price limit will decrease by $10.00 – new price limit is $183.99/hr (as of July 1st 2025)
Dietitian
The national price limit will decrease by $5.00 – new price limit is $188.99/hr (as of July 1st 2025)
Podiatrist
The national price limit will decrease by $5.00 – new price limit is $188.99/hr (as of July 1st 2025)
There are now new therapy support line items added under Early Intervention Supports for Early Childhood, so they match the options available for people over 9 years old. These include specific therapies like:
Therapy Prices
Sessions can now be billed in 10-minute blocks to allow for more flexibility in billing and service delivery
You need to charge based on how much time or how many units of support you actually provided. If the support took less time than a full unit (like 30 minutes instead of 60), you only charge for the 30 minutes. If it took longer, you can charge for the extra time too.
Claims must be made by either claiming a quantity of units or of hours, NOT both.
For example – A Speech therapist runs a 40 mins session at their normal hourly rate of $190.00, this must be invoiced either as,
- Hourly format = 0:40
- Units = 40/60 = 0.67 (calculated by dividing 40 minutes by 60 minutes)
See calculation below:
Hours (Units): 0.67 hours @ $190.00/hr = $127.30 OR
Hour Format: OR 0:40 @ $190.00/hr = $127.40
This support must NOT be invoiced as shown below
1 @ $127.40 = $127.40
It aims to clarify that 1 hour is not a ‘default’ or ‘expected’ service length, and that the length of service can vary depending on the agreement between the participant and provider, based on individual needs and circumstances.
How it will work:
NDIA have provided a conversion for hours to units in 10-minute blocks
Always claim in either units or hours – not both
The total claimed must still follow existing rules (e.g. maximum hours per plan, no rounding up, etc.).
Therapy Travel
Travel claims for therapy will be capped at 50% of the unit price on a pro rata basis to encourage more efficient scheduling by providers and provide clear cost expectations for participants to help them get better value from their funding.
This is known as a labour time cap — it limits how much of a therapist’s time for travel can be billed under NDIS.
What does this mean?
If the therapy rate is, say, $190/hour, the TRAVEL rate is 0.50 * 190 = $95/hr, that breaks down to $31.67 per 10 minutes.
The max travel claim is 30 minutes in MMM1-3 areas and 60 minutes in MMM4-5 areas, for example:
Your speech therapist travelled 20 minutes to get to you from their workplace, and you live in an MMM1 region. They charge you at the NDIS rate of $193.99/hr for your session.
This means they can charge travel at a rate of half their hourly rate.
So:
$193.99 ÷ 2 = $97.00 per hour is how much they can charge for travel
But they only travelled 20 minutes, so the travel charge is:
($97.00 ÷ 60minutes) × 20minutes = $32.33 travel charge
This keeps travel costs in proportion to the therapy time actually provided.
Why is this happening?
- To prevent overclaiming for travel when the therapy session is short.
- To keep the NDIS more sustainable: aligning travel charges with service value.
- More flexibility: Not every therapy session needs to be exactly 60 minutes. Some may be 30 mins, 40 mins, or 70 mins.
- Fairer billing: Providers will claim only for the actual time spent, not rounding up to the hour.
- Easier for participants: Less risk of being overcharged or losing funding due to fixed-length pricing.
Example of Therapy Travel:
Let’s say a therapist:
Delivers a 30-minute therapy session
Therapy rate = $190/hr → $31.67 per 10 mins
Maximum travel claim allowed:
30 minutes = 3 × $31.67 = $95.01 for therapy
Travel claim must be no more than 50% of that → $47.51
Even if the therapist spends 40 minutes traveling, they can only claim $47.51 for travel in this case.
Additional Notes:
This rule is in addition to existing travel time caps:
- 30 minutes max in metro areas
- 60 minutes max in remote areas
It focuses on keeping travel costs proportionate to the length of the actual service provided.
For more information, see our resource titled: Can my therapist charge me for travel?
Support Connections, support coordination and recovery coaches
The only change in Support Coordination is for Level 1: Support Connection. All the other supports in Category 7 will keep the same prices as before.
Level 1: Support Connection
Increase national rate in line with the changes to rates for Disability Support Worker cost model
The national rate will increase to $80.06/hr (non-remote), $112.08/hr (remote) and $120.09 (very remote)
Plan Management
The changes seen to plan management fees reflects the fact that more participants are using plan managers, but the number of providers hasn’t changed much. Most plan management are now providing supports mostly online, making it easier to reach more people, with larger providers supporting a lot of NDIS participants in rural areas.
- There will be no change to the monthly fee for plan management
- Removal of rural and remote rates for plan management – setting a single price limit across Australia
- Remove of the set-up for plan management
Other changes
The APR also included changes that will not be reviewed annually, including:
- Changing early childhood age limit from 7 to 9 years
- New info was added to explain provider responsibilities and conflicts of interest
CLICK HERE to review the Annual Pricing Review (APR) report in more details
