Archive: NDIS Price Guide Update - July 2018

For more information about how NDIS Price Guide updates are managed in SupportAbility, please review the following article: 

• How are NDIS Price Guides managed in SupportAbility

February 2019 NDIS Price Guide update

17th of February, 2019

13th of February, 2019

In summary, the changes to the NDIS Price Catalogues include:

• 4 x 'Group Based Activities In A Centre - Flat' Support Items have been removed.
• 5 x 'Assistance with Self-Care Activities - Complex' Support Items have been removed, and replaced with Level 1, 2 and 3 versions of these Support Items.
• 5 x 'Access Community, Social And Rec Activities - Ratio 1:1 - Complex' Support Items have been removed, and replaced with Level 1, 2 and 3 versions of these Support Items.
• The 'Assistance with Self-Care - Active Overnight - Complex' Support Item has been removed, and replaced with a Level 1, 2 and 3 version of this Support Item.
• 'Assistance Dog (Including Guide Dog) Ongoing Costs' Support Items has been moved from Support Category 1 to Support Category 3.
• 5 x 'Group Based Activities In A Centre - Ratio 1:1 - Complex' Support Items have had a change in price.
• The 'Plan And Financial Capacity Building' Support Item has had a change in price.

How will SupportAbility implement these changes?

New Support Items:

• The 33 new Complex Level 1, 2 and 3 Support Items for the following Support Items, will be added to the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides available in SupportAbility: 
  • 'Assistance with Self-Care Activities - Complex', 
  • 'Access Community, Social And Rec Activities - Ratio 1:1 - Complex' and  
  • 'Assistance with Self-Care - Active Overnight - Complex'. 
• The new Support Category 3 version of the 'Assistance Dog (Including Guide Dog) Ongoing Costs' Support Item will also be added to the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides available in SupportAbility.

IMPORTANT: These new Support Items will be added to the standard 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides in SupportAbility, effective July 1st, 2018. This will mean that these new Supports can be allocated to Clients in Activities that commence on or after July 1st, 2018. To this extent it is important to inform Staff that these new Support Items should only be allocated in Activities that occur on or after February 1st, 2019 and additionally, only after Providers and participants have formed agreement, and Service Bookings have been created under the new price control arrangements, or amended to this effect.

Removed Support Items:

• Given that Providers must potentially rework Service Agreements with participants and are required to re-create, or amend Service Bookings in order to use the new Level 1, 2 and 3 versions of the existing complex Support Items, the original NDIS Support Items will need to remain available for Providers to Allocate and Invoice/Claim until this process takes place. 
• For this reason, the 16 NDIS Support Items removed from the NDIS Support Catalogues in the February 2019 NDIS Price Guide Update will remain in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides available in SupportAbility.

Support Items with an updated Price:

• For the same reasons outlined above, the 'Group Based Activities In A Centre - Ratio 1:1 - Complex' Support Items and the 'Plan And Financial Capacity Building' Support Item, the updated price of these Support Items will not be applied in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides available in SupportAbility. 
• Updating these prices would have the affect of automatically applying these new prices for all participants and potentially constitute a breach of the NDIS Terms of Business.  
• Once Service Agreements and Service Bookings have been reworked (where required) to reflect the new price/s, in order to commence charging at this price Providers must update this in each Client's NDIS Direct Client Funding record. The Support Item must be added to the record, even if a parent Flexible Support Category Budget exists and the Price must be customised to the new price. 
  

  N.B. A Budget it not necessarily required, if the Flexible Category Budget exists, and Utilisation & Expenditure should be tracked at this level. Please review the Customising NDIS Support Items article for more information regarding this specifically, or the NDIS Direct Client Funding video in the Client Funding section of the Learning Centre for a more comprehensive overview (available following the upgrade to v6.0). 

• For providers delivering Plan Management Services, please note that when entering External Invoices, SupportAbility will continue to provide information regarding Support Item Price Limits in reference to the original price of these Support Items effective 1st July, 2018, and will not reference the updated price.  With this in mind, is important that Staff entering External Invoices are aware of the new Price Limits for these 6 Support Items for Services delivered from February 1st, 2019 onwards.

When can we expect the changes associated with the 2019 February NDIS Price Guide update to be available in SupportAbility? 

5th of February, 2019

NDIA release Price Guide amendment to include additional prices for complex supports, effective February 1st, 2019

July 2018 NDIS Price Guide updates

27th of August, 2018

With the release of the updates in response to the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides recently we wanted to provide clarification regarding why the cancellation reduced price percentage only applies to Category 1, 4 and 15 supports. 

Whilst the number of each Category is not explicit in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, the 'Cancellation and "no shows" for scheduled supports' section states these conditions apply to '...personal care and community access supports...[and] therapy services...' p. 19 ( 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania).

We have had the following Support Categories that each of these domains correlate to confirmed by the NDIA recently: 

• Category 1 - personal care
• Category 4 - community access, and
• Category 15 - therapeutic supports.

The Agency have also confirmed the cancellation and "no show" rules apply to  all supports in each of these areas. 

We cannot confirm that Support Categories outside of these  cannot be claimed as cancelled, hence only an informational warning is being displayed if there are any supports relating to other Support Categories allocated and a Client is Absent and being charged. What is invoiced/claimed is at the discretion of the Provider due to this. Unfortunately, we are not privy to more information regarding what will or won't be accepted by the portal with the Claim Type of Cancellation. 

We encourage Providers to seek further clarification regarding what is and is not acceptable to be invoiced and or claimed in the event of a cancellation and "no show" from the NDIA. If more information regarding this is made official by the Agency then we will most certainly review this further. 

We can also confirm that the way in which SupportAbility is treating Supports with no price control ($0 price) is correct, given there is no price limit these items are treated as 'quoteable' in SupportAbility which allows for a custom quote price to be entered or set as 'Staff Allowed to Customise Rate' setting. Please see the ' How to Customise Support Items set to Quotable or that do not have a Price Control' section of the Customising NDIS Support Items article for more information. 

10th of August, 2018

Upcoming release of enhancements in response to the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides

The enhancements to address the policy changes in relation to cancellations and "no shows", as well as the new myplace Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request file format, are due for release in the upgrade to version 5.7 of SupportAbility next week. 

This development has resulted in the NDIS Support Allocations functionality in Activities, previously titled NDIS Funding Allocation, requiring a complete rebuild. Therefore along with the required new functionality, other slight updates in this area can be expected. 

The enhancements for Providers of Plan Management Services introduces the ability for 'Claim Type' and 'Cancellation Reason' to be added, where applicable, when entering invoice items. 

The 'new' NDIS Bulk Payment Request 2018/19 file export will be available following this upgrade, which contains the new required columns of 'Claim Type' and 'Cancellation Reason'. N.B. The 'old' NDIS Bulk Payment Request 2017/18 file export will be remain available as well as the new,for a limited transitional period of approximately three months. 

For more detail about these upcoming changes, please review the information published on July 13th. Further information will be published and available regarding the specifics of these updates next week. These resources will be referenced in the notification of these updates in the associated Release Notes issued next week. If you are not yet subscribed to our Release Notes mailing list and would like to receive these updates, please do so via our website. 

13th of July, 2018

Enhancements in response to the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides

We continue to work on our engineering response to the introduction of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides. More specifically, the policy changes made in relation to cancellations and "no shows" as well the new MyPlace Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request file format. These changes are expected to be delivered in August 2018 and are detailed below.

Claiming for cancellation and "no show" occurrences

A new rule has been introduced in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides. From July 1st, 2018 onwards, service Providers can only claim up to a maximum of 90% of the agreed price of the cancelled appointment in the event of a cancellation or "no show" for Support Category 1 (personal care), 4 (community access) and 15 (therapeutic) supports.  

Furthermore, the number of claimable cancellation and "no show" occurrences is capped with new limits for Category 1 (personal care) and 4 (community access) supports and a separate limit for Category 15 (therapeutic) supports.

At this point in time, the only guidance provided by the Agency around cancellations and "no shows" is that which is contained within the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides.  Whilst this document provides some insight into the Agency's intent, it lacks the detail required for service Providers to manage cancellation and "no show" occurrences and thus comply with the Agency's requirements. For this reason, the majority of the questions outlined in our 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide - questions for the NDIA letter (24/06/2018), were designed specifically to seek clarification and guidance from the Agency on how providers are expected to operate, manage and comply with these policy changes around cancellations and "no shows".

At this point in time, we have still not received any response from the NDIA and, as a result, our ability to design build and release functionality in response to these policy changes is restricted. Whilst we await a response from the Agency, we have commenced what work we can, to assist Providers comply with the policy amendments announced in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides.  

Claim Type itemisation for services delivered 

Historically, the Agency provided guidance that travel was to be calculated by Providers and then included as time added to the primary support being delivered when claimed.  The  new MyPlace Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request file format requires that each Support claimed must include the Claim Type of either: 

• Standard Charges, 
• Travel Charges, 
• Report Writing Charges, or 
• Cancellation Charges.

Whilst the ability to demarcate the Travel and Report Writing portions of support, separately from the primary support delivered claimed may improve reporting opportunities for the Agency, it also runs the risk of increasing the administration overhead of data entry for Providers required to capture this level of information.

We are working on the following enhancements to address all of these new requirements:

System Preferences

Providers will have the option to set the Cancellation Reduced Price Percentage in System Preferences between 0 - 90%; with 90% being set as the default.

NDIS Funding Allocations in Activities

The Client's  NDIS Funding Allocation window in Activities will be updated significantly. 

It will be possible to add same NDIS Support Item will be able to be added to a Client's NDIS Funding Allocation more than once.

Each allocated Support Item will require a  Claim Type to be added of: 

• Standard Service,
• Travel, or
• Report Writing.

N.B. Standard Service will be set as the default. 

For any Clients marked as Absent in an Activity, without No Charge selected:

1. The  Claim Type in the NDIS Funding Allocation will be overridden to Cancellation, 

2. Selection of a Cancellation Reason will be required of either:

• No show due to health reason
• No show due to family issues
• No show due to unavailability of transport, or
• Other.

3.The  Cancellation Reduced Price Percentage as set in System Preferences, will be applied to the Rate and Value of in the NDIS Funding Allocation for any and all Category 1, 4 and 15 supports for all (non-Signed Off) Activities that fall on or after July 1st, 2018,

4. Warnings will be displayed in the NDIS Funding Allocation window and Activity record to alert Staff when there are Support Items with a quantity greater than zero that do not belong to Category 1, 4 or 15.

5. The quantity of any Support Items can be updated to zero or removed for any Supports you do not wish to charge for, or select the No Charge option.

Invoice Items for Plan Managers

We are also in the process of working on a solution for the addition of Claim Type to the invoice items added to External Invoices for Providers of Plan Management Services. 

NDIS Bulk Payment Request file

The new Claim Type and Cancellation Reason fields will be included in the Bulk Payment Request file generated from SupportAbility.

Given the introduction of these fields in the  new MyPlace Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request file format, and also the importance of Bulk Payment Request files, it is critical that service Providers can transition to this new format safely and never left in a position where they are unable to claim. 

The NDS, in their June 3rd post entitled ' Further advice on NDIS prices' communicated 'We understand that the portal is still accepting the old payment template. NDS is seeking clarification on when the changes take effect and how to implement the changes.'

With this in mind, upon releasing this new functionality, we will initially be providing options for service providers to export their NDIS Bulk Payment Requests in both the original and new formats.

5th of July, 2018

Price Guide Transition

We have been receiving questions from Providers as to why the ability to choose when Client's should transition to the new 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides has not been included. Therefore, more information to explain the reasons for this has been provided below. 

NDIS Price Guide transitions are always incredibly challenging for everyone in the NDIS ecosystem. These events require Vendors and Service Providers alike, to make difficult operational decisions with an insufficient level of guidance from the Agency as to how Providers are expected to operate under these new Price Guide arrangements.

Why hasn’t SupportAbility enabled transition management for the 2018/19 Price Guide?
We take these price guide release events very seriously, as SupportAbility is a critical tool that manages the primary cash flow and compliance requirements for over 100 providers across the nation. Software engineering is an incredibly complex process compounded when servicing an industry with requirements in a constant state of flux. With each feature added to SupportAbility, we have to ensure strict compliance and interoperability with every existing feature, and every possible way that providers could be using that existing functionality. 

Flexibility comes at the price of complexity and adding complexity affects not only product stability, but also slows down any and all future engineering and testing efforts. Adding complexity inhibits our ability to respond quickly to events such as the enhancements required as a result of a new price guide release. Given that the NDIS invoicing and claiming functionality in SupportAbility performs such a critical function for so many Providers, we are very mindful of our responsibility to not further complexify the product unless clear instruction has been given by the NDIA that the added complexity is a compliance requirement.

To this extent, it is important to clarify that we have not removed any Price Guide transition functionality in SupportAbility. The Price Guide transition tool  that we released last year, was specifically designed to manage the singular transition from the 2016/17 to the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide for participant plans spanning these timeframes. SupportAbility has never included the feature to specifically manage the 2017/18 to 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide transitions, nor a feature to manage multiple Price Guide transitions simultaneously for participant plans that span two or three years. 

These additional features, whilst sounding simple at face value, represent a significant increase in the engineering complexity of the product, which jeopardises product stability and impedes our ability to respond rapidly to future changes in compliance requirements. 


Seeking clear and official guidance from the NDIA
Please know that we are not fundamentally opposed to providing a transition tool for the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides or any future price guide that follows it. We are simply requesting that the Agency can provide clear and official guidance that transition control is indeed a requirement for Disability Service Providers compliance. 

We are currently exploring every avenue we have available to attain that guidance from the Agency, so that we can all move forward and do what needs to be done to comply with their requirements. 


What information do we currently have available?
At this point in time, the only information we have available is that contained within the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide and its comparison with the previous 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide. 

2013-2016 NDIS Price Guides:
Prior to the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide, and harking all the way back to the 2013 NDIS trials, Providers were allowed and expected to use new prices immediately once a new Price Guide was introduced. 


2017/18 NDIS Price Guides:
The 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide introduced the following clause on page 12:  ‘Prices that have already been explicitly set in service agreements between providers and participants are not affected by changes to maximum prices, even if the service agreement is for the delivery of supports after 1 July 2017’. The addition of this new clause meant that for the first time, NDIS Service Providers were not allowed to use the new prices in situations where:

1. the Service Agreement with the client specifically stipulated support pricing, OR
2. the Service Agreement did not contain a clause stating that support prices would be amended to align with future releases of the NDIS Price Guide.

As a result of this change we built the 2016/17 to  2017/18 Price Guide transition feature to allow providers to remain compliant with the Agency’s guidance in this regard.

2018/19 NDIS Price Guides:

When the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides were released by the NDIA, our team performed a thorough audit and a detailed comparison with the previous 2017/18 NDIS Price Guides.

Much of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides remained unchanged, however our audit revealed that the Agency had specifically removed the 2017/18 clause around price guide transition timing being reliant on existing Service Agreements. 

Additional guidance was also provided in the ‘ Summary of updated price arrangements for 2018/19‘ letter, indicating that participant plans will be indexed to ensure that the price increases to not affect the quantity of support they are able to receive. 

Further to this, the NDIA have advised in their  End of financial year myplace portal maintenance post on July 5th, 2018 that:

‘The NDIS participant and provider myplace portal will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from 8pm Australian Eastern Time (AET) on Friday 6 July until 8pm AET on Sunday 8 July to allow for price indexation increases to participant plans and service bookings that are active at 1 July 2018. Some participants may notice additional funds added to their total NDIS budget as well as an increase or change to their existing service bookings.’

At this point in time, with this being the only guidance provided by the NDIA, we can only assume that the Agency has removed this clause on purpose, and thus removed the requirement for 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide transitions to be determined by the structure and content of incumbent Service Agreements. However, as advised we have been making every effort to clarify this with the Agency. Unfortunately advice from DSC is not sufficient and we do need formal clarification of this from the NDIA or NDS if this is not the case. 


Where to from here?
We will continue our efforts, through every means we have available, to seek clarity from the Agency in this regard, as we fully acknowledge that the guidance at this point is vague at best and that this issue too important to leave unattended.

Please be assured that in the event that we succeed in obtaining further clarity and official guidance from the Agency, that 2018/19 transitions  are indeed dependent on Service Agreements (as with the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guides), then we will promptly update SupportAbility to allow providers to comply with this requirement as our number one priority. 

In the mean time, we will continue to provide updates via our  NDIS Price Guide Update - July 2018 Knowledge Base article, as we work to seek answers and respond with solutions. Noting that we are currently working on solutions to assist Providers meeting compliance requirements regarding Cancellations and "no shows", as well as adding Claim Type and Cancellation Type (where applicable) into the Bulk Payment Request claim file. 

How can Providers help?

This issue affects not only SupportAbility subscribers but all NDIS Service Providers across the country. We would ask all Providers to assist us in lobbying the NDIA to provide further clarity and official guidance in this important area so that SupportAbility and Disability Service Providers alike can comply with their requirements. 

3rd of July, 2018

Price Guide Transition

The Price Guide transition feature was built to meet a specific requirement when transitioning to the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guides. However, as per the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, all communication from the Agency suggests that 2018/19 prices can be used effective from July 1st, 2018. It is for this reason that we have not added the ability for Providers to customise when Client's should transition to the new Price Guide. 

We have reached out to the NDIA for confirmation on this point (please see:  2018/19 NDIS Price Guide - questions for the NDIA), however at this point in time we have not received a reply. 

If Providers wish to utilise 2017/18 prices for Services delivered to Clients from July 1st, 2018, the related NDIS Support Items must first be added to the  Client's Funding Plan and have the price customised to the appropriate rate.

Please note that a total budget is not required to be entered in the Client's Funding Plan, in order for a custom priced Support Item to be used.

Cancellations and "no shows"

We are currently making enhancements to allow Providers to manage the new compliance requirements detailed in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides around cancellations and "no shows". This includes: 

• ability for Providers to set and apply reduced charge out rates for Category 1, 4 & 15 supports,
• visibility into the number of cancellation/"no show" occurrences
• warnings to assist with these compliance requirements 

Bulk Payment Request

The NDS have published an  article today which has details the newly required fields in the Bulk Payment Request file. The updated NDIS Bulk Payment Request Step by step guide outlines the addition of two new fields: Claim Type and Cancellation Reason. 

It has been communicated that the portal will continue to accept the original file format, however, we are currently working on enhancements that will allow this information to be recorded and included in the Bulk Payment Request claim file.  

We will continue to provide updates on our progress in this regard. 

28th of June, 2018

Addition of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides

As per yesterday's update, the addition of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides are being completed in the upgrade to version 5.5 tonight.

To assist Providers inform and remind their staff about this important event, we have placed a prominent message on every Staff member's dashboard, as a reminder that they should not use SupportAbility during this maintenance period between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am AEST.

Providers of group services and/or short term accommodation assistance

We recommend providers who deliver group services (community access & centre based), and/or short term accommodation assistance consider the following ASAP: 

• Review and consider the new supports for short term accommodation assistance and group servicing, both community access and centre based. Our 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide Group and Short Term Accommodation Support Variations document may assist further, as it provides a detailed breakdown.
• Decide which of the new supports are relevant to Client's who participate in the services that you deliver, now that this area has been expanded upon in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide.
• Inform the relevant operations Staff of your organisation's chosen direction in relation to these updates. It is important that anyone tasked with updating Client Funding plans and/or allocating NDIS Funding in Activities, understands this.
• Staff tasked with updating Client Funding Plans and/or NDIS Funding Allocations in Activities need to understand how to search by Tag in the Client Funding Search and the Activity Search ahead of this.
• Staff tasked with this update will also need to understand how to update NDIS Funding Allocations, and how Replicating Activities works if they don't already; specifically how updates to the Clients section of the Activity i.e. NDIS Funding Allocations can be replicated through to the remaining Activities in the set.

Action required for these Providers following the addition of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides 

Client Funding Plans

Communications have been sent directly to providers with Client Funding plans including any 2017/18 group or short term accommodation supports e.g. 04_104_0125_6_1, but do  not include the related parent Support Category e.g. Category 0004: Assistance with Social and Community Participation, with more information about the number of Client Funding records they have in this state. 

Instructions have been sent to your organisation's  Authorised Representatives and CEO regarding identifying and updating these Client Funding plans following tonight's upgrade to version 5.5. 

NDIS Funding Allocations in Activities

As per yesterday's communication, some of the group (community access & centre based) and short term accommodation supports allocated in Activities from the 1st of July, 2018 onwards, will be removed from the Client's NDIS Funding Allocation. 

An example of this is  04_107_0136_6_1 group based activities in a centre – core. Whilst this item reference still exists, it has been updated to Group Based Activities In A Centre - Flat - Weekday Daytime. Given the centre based group supports have been expanded upon from 4 support items to 54 in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, providers therefore need to consider which of these supports should be allocated. If the Group Based Activities In A Centre - Flat - Weekday Daytime support item is deemed suitable, it will need to be allocated again, as it has been updated from what it was in the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide. 

Please review yesterday's communications again if more information is required on which supports are being removed from the NDIS Funding Allocation in Activities. To assist providers locate these Activities in the Activity Search, the Activity Tag of '2018/19 ratio review' will be applied. 

For this reason, it is imperative that ALL providers who deliver group services and short term accommodation assistance ensure they have Staff available to update NDIS Funding Allocations where necessary. 

We recommend Staff tasked with reviewing these Activities and updating the  NDIS Funding Allocations: 

• Navigate to the Activity Search.
• Search by the Activity Tag '2018/19 ratio review'.
• Review each of the Activities with this Tag.
• Review the NDIS Funding Allocation of each of the Activities participants.
• Allocate new or updated supports as required.
• Replicate these updates to the future Activities in the set as necessary.
• We recommend repeating this process for the Activity Tag of '2018/19 unavailable item review' to locate Activities which contained NDIS Supports which no longer exist in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide.

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Transport Support Item 

The 02_051_0108_1_1 transport support item has been updated in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, to being Quotable with no price. 

For any support items that are set to  Quotable in the NDIS Price Guides, the specific support item must be entered into the Client's Funding plan with the Quote amount entered, before it is available to be allocated in an Activity. More information regarding this is outlined in the Customising NDIS Support Items article.

However, the rules are somewhat different for this Transport support item in SupportAbility. In an effort to make this easier for Providers, the default quotable price for this item has been amended to the per kilometre rate of .78c. This has been the case since 2016.

This means that if 02_051_0108_1_1 is required to be  allocated in Activities, then only Category 2 needs to be added to the Client's Funding Plan for this support item to be used. 

If your organisation wishes to charge at a price other than .78c, then this support item must be added to the  Client's Funding Plan and the price customised accordingly. 

Please see the  Transport Knowledge Base article for more information.  

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Future planned updates associated with the new 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides

Cancellations and "no shows"

With the recent changes to the cancellation and "no shows" policy, detailed in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, we will be making several enhancements to allow providers to manage invoices and their compliance in this regard. At this point in time we are awaiting further clarification from the NDIA on the detailed compliance requirements regarding this before a solution is finalised.

Group servicing ratios

We are currently reviewing the way SupportAbility calculates Staff to Client ratios in group Activities to ensure that it is in alignment with these updates to ensure that the ratio appears correctly when absenteeism is recorded.At this point in time we are awaiting further clarification from the NDIA on the detailed compliance requirements regarding this before a solution is finalised.

27th of June, 2018

Addition of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides

Whilst we have not yet received any feedback from the NDIA regarding the questions that we have posed (as per the update on the 25th of June, 2018), we do not want to delay in adding the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides into SupportAbility. Our Engineering team are currently working on this in the upgrade to version 5.5, scheduled for release tomorrow evening Thursday the 28th of June, 2018. 

IMPORTANT: All SupportAbility installations need to be taken offline to apply this important upgrade from 8:00 pm on Thursday the 28th June, 2018, to 6:00 am Friday the 29th of June, 2018 AEST. 

We strongly recommend that providers do not use SupportAbility at this time, even if it appears to be online as any changes may not be saved. 

Removed, New & Updated Support Items

With the removal of some NDIS Support Items in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, along with the introduction of new and updated support items with ratios for group and short term accommodation supports, we have performed an analysis of NDIS Client Funding plans and NDIS Funding Allocations in Activities from July 1st, 2018, and will be subsequently making some changes in the upgrade to version 5.5 to assist providers manage this.  

Removed Support Items

Where NDIS Support Items that are no longer available in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides have been added to a Client's Funding plan, a Client Funding Tag of '2018/19 unavailable item review' will be added so these Client Funding records can be found by Tag in the Client Funding Search. This will allow providers to review and amend where necessary.

Similarly, any of these supports that have been allocated in Activities from the 1st of July, 2018 onwards, will be removed from the Client's NDIS Funding Allocation. An Activity Tag of ' 2018/19 unavailable item review' will be added to assist providers identify which Activities have had NDIS Funding Allocations removed for this reason. This will allow providers to locate these Activities by Tag in the Activity Search in order to review and adjust as required.  

New and updated Support Items for Group and Short Term Accommodation supports

Given that group and short term accommodation supports has been expanded upon in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, some Client Funding plans and Activities will require providers attention ahead of July 1st, 2018. 

Client Funding plans

Where a Client's Funding plan includes any 2017/18 group or short term accommodation supports e.g. 04_104_0125_6_1, but does not include the related parent Support Category e.g. Category 0004: Assistance with Social and Community Participation; a Client Funding Tag of '2018/19 ratio review' will be added. This will allow providers to identify these records by Tag in the Client Funding Search as they may need to be updated to accommodate for these changes.

NDIS Funding Allocation in Activities

Some of these supports allocated in Activities from the 1st of July, 2018 onwards, will be removed from the Client's NDIS Funding Allocation. This is required due to:

• the Agency not providing direct mapping for these supports between the 2017/18 and 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides. Whilst these item reference numbers may have existed, the nature of the support they represent has changed, and 
• new and more specific items have been included in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, which may need to be allocated for services being delivered from the 1st of July, 2018 onwards. 

One area of concern that providers must be aware of, is the updates to centre-based social and recreational activities supports. In the 2017/18 NDIS Price Guides, this was limited to four support items. However, in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides this has been expanded upon to include 54 variations, accommodating for ratios and needs. 

Furthermore, the four original 2017/18 NDIS Price Guide centre-based social and recreational activities support descriptions have been updated to include a new term of 'flat' which appears to have no explanation in the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides as to the rules for it's valid use. Due to these factors, each of the 2017/18 centre-based social and recreational activities supports are included in the NDIS support items which are being removed from the NDIS Funding Allocation for Activities from July 1st, 2018 and onwards, as providers will need to decide on which of the new 54 supports in this area are the most appropriate to allocate. 

There are however, some supports in this group for which direct mappings are available, therefore these allocations will remain: 

• 1:1 supports for Short Term Accommodation,
• 1:1 community-based - Standard and Complex needs, and
• 1:3 community-based - Standard and Complex needs. 

An Activity Tag of ' 2018/19 ratio review' will be added to assist providers identify which Activities have had NDIS Funding Allocations removed for this reason. This will allow providers to locate these Activities by Tag in the Activity Search in order to review and adjust as required.  

Please see the attached document:  2018/19 NDIS Price Guide Group and Short Term Accommodation Support Variations for a detailed breakdown. 

25th of June, 2018

Link: 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide - questions for the NDIA

The team at SupportAbility have been busy auditing the new 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, 'Price Catalogue' (CSV) and the ‘Summary of updated price arrangements for 2018/19' documents released by the NDIA last week, as no doubt many providers have been also. 

The 2018/19 Price Guide stipulates several amendments to the NDIS regulatory framework that will change the compliance requirements for NDIS service providers in the way they both deliver and then claim for services. 

We have outlined a number of key questions that we have raised after a thorough audit of these documents. We have posed these questions to the NDIA (as per the link above), in an effort to seek further clarity for the service providers whom use SupportAbility, in areas where the documentation provided lacks the level of detail required for providers to comply with these changes. 

We have expressed gratitude for any clarity and insight the Agency could provide around these issues. Our hope is that this process will provide great efficiency for the Agency, subverting the need for them to conduct separate conversations with each provider. 

22nd of June, 2018 

Updates to NDIS Support Items

Please find following links to our documentation on the NDIS Support Items that have tables to indicate which support items which have been  added and the Support Items that have been removed from each of the CSV versions of the NDIS Price Guides we will be adding to SupportAbility: 

• Vic/NSW/Qld/Tas 2018/19 NDIS Support Catalogue updates
• ACT/NT/SA/WA 2018/19 NDIS Support Catalogue updates

Non-Quotable items with a $0 price

There are 270 Support Items that are set to Non-Quotable with a $0 price.

Examples of these include: 

SupportAbility automatically overrides the setting of non-quotable for these Support Items and sets them to Quotable so they can be used. 

To use a support item that does not have a price, it must first be added to the Client’s funding plan, along with the Price entered into the quote field, prior to it being available for allocation within an activity. Please see the  Customising NDIS Support Items article for more information. 

Group servicing ratios

With the addition of 1:4 and 1:5 ratios for group servicing, and 1:3 for short term accommodation assistance, this highlights the importance of Providers being able to manage ratios for group servicing effectively. 

There is some existing functionality available in SupportAbility to assist managing Staff to Client ratios, however, we are reviewing this to ensure that it is in alignment with these updates. Particularly in regards to cancellations and "no shows" e.g. that the ratio appears correctly when absenteeism is recorded. 

Cancellations and "no shows"

In regards to cancellations and "no shows", the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide indicates that Providers charging for these events are restricted to charging a maximum of 90% of the agreed price for the cancelled appointment. The allowable occurrences are managed differently for:  

• Personal care & Community access, and
• Therapy. 

SupportAbility does not currently have a facility to easily manage the reduced charge in these scenarios. We are however, designing a solution for this. 

Indexation of Client budgets

The Agency have advised in the 'Summary of updated price arrangements for 2018/19', that participant budgets and service bookings will be updated automatically to reflect the additional costs that each individual participant will face as a result of the increases in price limits. However, this information is not detailed enough for us to apply a systemic indexation to Client Funding Plans in SupportAbility, as there are too many uncertainties regarding how this will be applied and for what portion of the remaining budget. 

We recommend holding off on any manual update to Client Funding Plans in SupportAbility, until the funding totals in the Client's Plan is updated on the MyPlace Provider Portal.

Addition of the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides into SupportAbility

Our Engineering team are currently working on importing the new NDIS Price Guides into SupportAbility which will be available for Providers to use ahead of July 1st, 2018. We will keep you updated as this progresses via this article. 

21st of June, 2018

We are aware that the NDIA have published the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides on their website today. 

The team at SupportAbility are currently in the process of reviewing this information internally and will provide more information shortly.  

30th of May, 2018

Resources

Each year SupportAbility dedicate resources to managing 1st of July NDIS Price Guide Updates. 

This is imperative as historically, there have been many issues requiring our complete focus and resources to not only ensure this information is updated in SupportAbility, but allow for any additional development that may be required, in a timely manner for our subscribers. 

For more information, please review  How are NDIS Price Guides Managed in SupportAbility?

Price Guide Transition feature

As part of the NDIS Price Guide updates in 2017 new functionality was developed in response to new requirements under NDIS, via the introduction of the  Price Guide Transition feature. This feature was developed to facilitate Direct Service providers transition to the new 2017-18 NDIS Price Guide on a Client-by-Client basis when required. 

We are currently enhancing this functionality to allow transition across  multiple NDIS Price Guides. This is particularly important for any NDIS Client Funding Plans with a validity period spanning multiple NDIS Price Guide period e.g. 2016 - 2019. This feature will allow providers to choose the date in which each Price Guide should come into effect where required. 

2018 NDIS Price Guides

There has been no information published by the NDIA regarding the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides yet.