How does the 2025 NDIS Pricing Review affect Therapy Providers

This resource covers;

• What is the NDIS Pricing Review?
• NDIS Therapy Review
• Therapy Prices 
• Therapy Travel
• Example of how to calculate Therapy Travel
• ​Why have therapy prices not been increased?
• Changes for Physiotherapists
• Changes for Psychologists
• Changes for Dietitians & Podiatrists
• Which Therapists can charge for travel
• What travel costs therapists can charge

What is the Annual NDIS Pricing Review

The Annual Pricing Review is when the NDIA looks at how much NDIS services should cost. They check things like:

• Changes in wages
• Increases in prices (inflation)
• What it costs providers to do their jobs

Then, they decide if the maximum prices for NDIS services (like therapy or support work) should go up, down, or stay the same.

This helps make sure:

• People with NDIS plans get good value
• Providers are paid fairly
• The system keeps working well

Now, the NDIA wants to stop doing this big review every year and instead review different services one at a time over a few years. This will make the process more focused and planned.

• NDIA will introduce a 3-year pricing work plan with targeted reviews (not annual full reviews).
• Pricing updates will be released earlier in the financial year to support provider planning.

What changes did the NDIS announce about Therapy - effective from 1 July?

Therapy Review

• A full review of therapy pricing will be undertaken to assess existing price limits and help guide the move from one-size-fits-all pricing towards the differentiated pricing approach outlined in the Independent Pricing Committee’s report.

• It 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 ensure pricing continues to support participant outcomes, provider sustainability, and service quality.

Therapy Prices

• Price limits will be set in 10-minute blocks to allow more flexibility. This is intended to encourage greater flexibility in billing and service delivery.
• 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 will publish therapy rates per 10 minutes.
• Providers will multiply that rate by how many 10-minute blocks were delivered.
• 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 10-minute rate 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 “10-minute rate on a pro rata basis” mean?

• If the therapy rate is, say, $190/hour, that breaks down to $31.67 per 10 minutes.
• The max travel claim per 10-minute block of therapy is 50% of that, or $15.84 per 10 minutes of therapy delivered.
• 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 how to calcualte Therapy travel costs

Let’s say a you:

• Deliver 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

Note; Even you spend 40 minutes traveling, you can only claim $47.51 for travel in this case. No more than 30 minutes can be claimed.

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.

Why have therapy prices not been increased?

The NDIS has told us that their review used over 10 million+ therapy data transactions, benchmarked against Medicare, PHI, and other schemes—revealing some NDIS prices exceeded market rates by up to 68%

Physiotherapists

• The NDIA plan to remove the state and territory differentiated pricing arrangement for supports delivered by a Physiotherapists. 
• A national price of $183.99/hr will replace state-based pricing.
• This will result in a reduction in price limit of $10/hr for Physiotherapists in NSW, VIC, QLD and ACT.
• This will result in a reduction in price limit of $40.06/hr for Physiotherapists in WA, SA, NT and TAS.

Psychologists

• The NDIA plan to remove the state and territory differentiated pricing arrangement for supports delivered by Psychologists.  
• A national price of $232.99/hr will apply.
• This will result in a reduction in price limit of $11.23 for Psychologists in WA, SA, NT, and TAS.

Dietitians & Podiatrists

• National prices will decrease by $5 to $188.99/hr.

Which Therapy Providers can charge for travel?​​

Capacity Building Providers (fancy name for therapists in NDIS speak) if there is a  'Y' in the 'Provider Travel' column in the NDIS Support Catalogue for the service line item. 

In truth, there is a Y for almost all items!

What Travel Costs can Therapists Charge For?

Therapists offering services in the NDIS can charge for the following travel costs:

1. Labour Costs (your time) 

This is the time you spend:

1. travelling to your client and 
2. returning to your usual place of business afterwards - ONLY IF they are your last appointment.

NOTE: See above how to calculate this cost.

2. Non-Labour Costs

With a Participahnt's agreement (via a service agreement) a therapist may also charge a client for a portion of your non-labour travel costs. 

This travel cost could include:

• a cost per kilometre* for a vehicle owned by a Provider and
• other forms of transport or associated costs up to the full amount, such as road tolls, parking,
• public transport fares.

The NDIS has set a maximum rate of $0.99 per km. You will need to negotiate an amount with your client.

*Check the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document for the latest rates.

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