NDIS Price Guide Transition
Each year on July 1st, the NDIA releases a new version of the NDIS Price Guide which is published on the NDIS website. These annual Price Guide updates are usually synonymous with an update to the price controls and rules in place, applicable to all Agency Managed NDIS Funding.
The NDIA also release periodic updates to the NDIS Price Guide e.g. Oct 2018, Feb 2019, Dec 2019, etc. Each update is reviewed in detail by the team at SupportAbility to assess what has been updated and how this will be managed. All Price Guide updates since the 'Dec 2019 Update' are treated as a new NDIS Price Guide in SupportAbility e.g. '2019/20 - December Update', and providers are able to control when to transition to the updated Price Guide as outlined below.
This article reviews what a Price Guide transition is and how the transition to a new NDIS Price Guide can be managed using SupportAbility.
Audience: Authorised Representatives, Finance Team, Operations Management, Team Leaders, and anyone tasked with working with Client Funding records.
Prerequisites
- It is important that providers understand holistically, how NDIS Price Guide updates are managed in SupportAbility.
- Price Guide Transitions are only applicable to providers of Direct Services, as this only affects which NDIS Price Guide is in use in relation to the NDIS Support Items Allocated in Activities.
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- What is a Price Guide transition?
- How does the Price Guide Transition feature work?
- Settings available to control transitioning to a new NDIS Price Guide
- Client Funding Price Guide Transition options
- Supports from previous Price Guide setting
- Considerations
What is a Price Guide transition?
A Price Guide transition refers to the transition from using one NDIS Price Guide, to a new version, for the NDIS Supports delivered.
To demonstrate this, let's consider the example of our Client Tim's NDIS Direct Funding record for the Funding Period of the 1st of January 2019, to the 31st of December 2019.
Two NDIS Price Guides are effective for this period:
- The 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, effective 1st of July, 2018 - 30th of June 2019, and the
- 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide, effective 1st of July 2019 - 30th of June 2020.
In this example, Tim's NDIS Funding period includes one Price Guide transition i.e. from the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide:
SupportAbility has a Price Guide Transition feature that allows providers to control when each Client is to transition to using the new Price Guide (once introduced) in the Activities they participate in, to give providers flexibility & control regarding when this transition occurs. The default state for each Client's Price Guide Transition setting can be also be determined by your organisation as outlined below.
How does the Price Guide Transition feature work?
When Support Items have been added to the Client's Funding record specifically, the Price listed for these Supports is the Price Limit that was valid as at the Funding Start Date. For example, given that Tim's Funding Period commenced on the 1st of January 2019, the Price Guide that was valid at this time was the 2018/2019 Price Guide. This is known as the 'Initial Price Guide' in use and is listed in the Client Funding Settings section of the record:
Specific Support Items have been added in Tim's NDIS Direct Client Funding record. The Price displayed for these Items is the Price Limit as at 01/01/2019, i.e. the price from the 2018/2019 NDIS Price Guide:
Whilst the Initial Price Guide is used to set up the Client's Funding record initially and due to this, the Prices displayed reflect the Prices that were valid at this time. Regardless of this, it is the Price Guide Transition feature discussed in this article, that determines which Price Guide is actually in use in the Activities that the Client participates in, that are delivered on or after July 1st.
Given Tim's Price Guide Transition setting has been set to 'As soon as available' (as is the default):
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide is in use in Activities on or after the 1st of July, 2019 e.g. the 10th of July and reflects the correct Price as per the new Price Guide i.e. $56.81 instead of $48.14 (as is displayed in the Client's Funding record):
N.B. In this case, the TTP has been activated for this Client, and therefore only the TTP version of this Support Item can be used at TTP Prices. For more information regarding this, please review the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) article linked below for reference.
Settings available to control transitioning to a new NDIS Price Guide
When a new NDIS Price Guide comes into effect, it is automatically applied 'As soon as available' as per the 'Default for new NDIS Price Guide Transitions' setting in the Funding tab in System Preferences:
This means that from July 1st (or as soon as the Price Guide is available in SupportAbility, see prerequisites for more information), the new NDIS Price Guide is referenced and used for all Client NDIS Support Allocations in Activities that are delivered on, or after this date (provided the Activity Sign Off has not yet been performed and a Client Support Log does not exist).
Alternatively, providers may choose not to apply the new NDIS Price Guide to all NDIS Direct Client Funding records as soon as it is available, by configuring this to 'Never':
This means that the new NDIS Price Guide will not be applied to any Client NDIS Support Allocations in Activities on or after July 1st, even when it becomes available in SupportAbility.
The only time setting this to 'Never' is recommended is when an organisation does not have a specific clause in their Service Agreement stating that the prices of NDIS Supports may change to align with NDIS Price Guide updates.
Regardless of the default, NDIS Price Guide Transition settings may be configured in each individual Client's NDIS Funding record as outlined below.
Client Funding Price Guide Transition options
Based on how the default NDIS Price Guide Transition setting has been configured, transitioning to the latest NDIS Price Guide will either be set to 'As soon as available' i.e. July 1st, or 'Never' in the Price Guide Transition tab in the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record when the new Price Guide is available in SupportAbility.
The Price Guide Transition tab is displayed in the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record:
This is where you can control when the Client transitions to using the new Price Guide in the Activities they participate in delivered on or after July 1st.
A summary table is displayed in this tab listing each NDIS Price Guide in effect during the Client's NDIS Funding period:
When 'As soon as available' is configured as the Transition Type (as per the above example), this means that the new Price Guide is in use in the Activities they participate in delivered on or after July 1st, even though the Client's Funding record may have been created when a previous Price Guide was in use.
It is important to note in addition to the default setting in System Preferences outlined above, that providers can decide when each individual Client's NDIS Support Allocations in the Activities they participate in should transition to using the new Price Guide as required.
To change this, select the 'Edit' pencil button. The 'Edit Price Guide Transition' window will display, allowing the Price Guide Transition to be customised to either:
- 'As soon as available'
- a 'Specific date', OR
- 'Never':
Noting that the above example is specifying when to transition to the 2019/2020 NDIS Price Guide.
N.B. When a Price Guide Transition is customised, SupportAbility checks any Activities with NDIS Support Allocations, which have not yet had the Activity Sign Off performed to ensure the correct Price Guide is applied.
As soon as available
When configured as such, this means that from July 1st (or as soon as the Price Guide is available in SupportAbility, see prerequisites for more information), the new NDIS Price Guide is referenced and used for all Client NDIS Support Allocations in Activities that are delivered on, or after this date (provided the Activity Sign Off has not yet been performed and no Client Support Log exists).
For example, Tim's Funding Period is from the 1st of Jan 2019 - 31st of December 2019, so the Initial Price Guide in use was the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide. However, given the Price Guide Transition setting has been configured to 'As soon as available', we can see that the new 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide is in use in the Activities he participates in after the 1st of July, 2019:
Specific date
The Specific date in which you wish for a Client to transition to the new Price Guide can be customised here. This option is suitable if you wish to specify exactly when certain Clients should transition to using the new Price Guide. For example, if a new Service Agreement needed to be established.
It is important to note that validations have been included ensuring Staff cannot select the Specific date of a Price Guide Transition to occur:
- Before the Client's Funding Period Start Date
- After the Client's Funding Period End Date
- Before the commencement date of the Price Guide i.e. 1st of July, 2019
- Before or on the 'Effective From Date' of any previous Price Guide Transitions
As an alternative to the above example, if we set Tim's Price Guide Transition setting to use the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide from the 5th of October, 2019:
This means that the 2018/2019 NDIS Price Guide will continue to be in use in Activities between the 1st of July - 4th of October, even though the NDIS Price Guide came into effect on July 1st, 2019. The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide will only be used for NDIS Support Items allocated in Activities from on or after the 5th of October, 2019 and not before:
When a 'Specific date' is selected, like we have done here, the Price Guide Summary table will update in alignment with these changes:
Please note the 'Effective To Date' of the initial Price Guide reflects the day before the specific date. Similarly, the 'Effective To Date' for the latest Price Guide reflects the last day of the Client's Funding Period.
Remember to select 'Save Client Funding' after applying any changes:
Never
This option can be selected when your organisation does not want a Client to transition to using the new Price Guide. In this scenario, the previous valid Price Guide will continue to be used in the NDIS Support Allocations window for the Client in the Activities they participate in, even on or after July 1st.
If we set our Client to 'Never' transition to using the new Price Guide:
This means that the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide will always be used in the NDIS Support Allocations for this Client in the Activities they participate in:
The Initial Price Guide will now be utilised until the end of the Client's Funding record.
Remember to select 'Save Client Funding' after applying and changes:
Supports from previous Price Guide setting
A feature is available from SupportAbility v6.21 (18th of August, 2020) for all NDIS Direct Client Funding records that commence on or after the 1st of July, 2020, to specify if Support Items from the previous Price Guide period are required to be added to the Funding record:
For example, 01_035_0115_1_1 Supported Independent Living - For 3 - Standard, has been included in our Client Tim's Service Booking commencing on the 23rd of July, 2020, however, this Support is not available in the 2020/21 NDIS Price Guide.
Therefore, in order to add this to the Funding record, we must first update the 'Supports from previous Price Guide' setting to 'Yes' by selecting the Edit button:
Selecting 'Yes' indicates that Supports from the previous Price Guide (that have since been removed) are required for this Client Funding record:
It is important to note that this should only be updated to Yes if your organisation has an active Service Booking and/or Agreement in place with the Client to deliver this Support during the Funding Period and that only Support Items within the previous Price Guide period, i.e. from July 1st the previous year, can be added once this setting is configured.
Once this has been saved, it will now appear as such in the Price Guide Transition tab:
The required Support Item is now available to add in the NDIS Supports section of the Client Funding Details tab e.g. 01_035_0115_1_1 :
A blue message appears to inform you which Price Guide the Support Item belongs to, in this case, the most recent NDIS Price Guide 01_035_0115_1_1 was available from within the previous Price Guide period was the '2019/20 - April 30th Update' NDIS Price Guide.
It is important to note that if Support Items from the previous Price Guide period are required, a Support Item Budget is needed in the Client's Funding record in order for the Support Item to be available to allocate in Activities (noting the amber message indicating this is a Support Item from previous Price Guide period):
Once this has been added, the same amber message appears in the Client Funding record for reference:
When this is allocated in Activities, the Price Guide the Support is from is also highlighted for reference, even when the latest Price Guide is in use for everything else e.g. 2020/21 - July 1st:
Considerations
Any NDIS Support items set to Quotable with a custom Quote entered, or NDIS Support Items with a custom Price added to the Client Funding record are excluded from the Price Guide transition settings.