Archive: NDIS Price Guide Updates - 2019/20
For more information about how NDIS Price Guide updates are managed in SupportAbility, please review the following article:
3rd of June, 2020
We are aware that the NDIA has published the 2020/2021 NDIS Price Guides on their website today.
Please review the new article for updates regarding the progress of this: NDIS Price Guide Updates - 2020/21
4th of May, 2020
The 2019/20 ‘April 30th Update’ NDIS Price Guide has been added to SupportAbility in the upgrade to v6.18.4 on the 4th of May, 2020.
Please see the previous update for more details about this new Price Guide.
30th of April, 2020
NDIS Price Guide 2019-20 - effective 30th of April 2020
On Thursday the 30th of April, 2020 the NDIA published Price Guides and related resources for the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue 2019–20 effective 30th April 2020. Our audit of the new price catalogue has revealed that the update includes five new Support Items, but contains no other changes.
The five new Support Items are:
| 01_795_0115_1_1 | COVID-19 SIL Cleaning Services |
| 01_796_0115_1_1 | COVID-19 SIL Additional Supports |
| 05_090000155_0103_1_2 | COVID-19 Hospital Discharge - AT Rental Products for Personal Care and Safety |
| 05_120000115_0105_1_2 | COVID-19 Hospital Discharge - AT Rental for Personal Mobility and Transfer |
| 15_222400911_0124_1_3 | COVID-19 Low Cost AT to support Capacity Building support delivery |
How can our organisation utilise these new Support Items?
In order for any of the new Support Items to be available for use in SupportAbility i.e. added to the Client's NDIS Support Allocations in the Activities they participate in, the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record must contain either a Flexible Budget for the parent Support Category e.g. CAT0001, or, if no Flexible Budget for the parent Support Category is available it will need to be added to the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record e.g. 01_796_0115_1_1 COVID-19 SIL Additional Supports.
When will the new Price Guide be available?
We are working on introducing this new 'April 30th Update' NDIS Price Guide into SupportAbility as soon as possible and we expect this will be available in an upgrade on Monday evening the 4th of May, 2020.
We will keep you updated regarding the progress of this from here.
27th of March, 2020
The 2019/20 ‘March 25th Update’ NDIS Price Guide has been added to SupportAbility in the upgrade to v6.16.4 on 27th of March, 2020.
Please see the previous update for more details about this new Price Guide.
26th of March, 2020
When will the new Price Guide be available?
We are working on introducing the new Price Guide into SupportAbility as soon as possible and we expect this will be available in an upgrade on Friday evening the 27th of March, 2020.
Will the 10% loading be applied automatically?
After the release of the 'March 25th Update' NDIS Price Guide, the Client's NDIS Support Allocations will be using this new Price Guide in the Activities they participate in, on or after this date, provided:
- the Client's Funding has the NDIS Price Guide Transition set to 'As soon as available' where applicable (which is the default state)
- the Activity Sign Off has not yet been performed
This will ensure the increased prices will be charged for the relevant Supports.
Will Client Funding Budgets be updated?
Any NDIS Direct Client Funding records that commenced on or after this date, and include Calculated Budgets for Support Items with an increased price; will have the Budget converted to a Total Budget Value.
For all other NDIS Direct Client Funding records, the increased prices for these Supports will not be updated in the Client's Funding record. This has been explained in detail in the ' Why aren't the Client Funding Details updated when a new Price Guide is in use?' section of the Adding an NDIS Direct Client Funding record article for reference.
How can our organisation utilise the new Core Support Coordination Support Items?
In order for any of the new Core Support Coordination Support Items to be available for use in SupportAbility i.e. added to the Client's NDIS Support Allocations in the Activities they participate in, the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record must contain either a Flexible Budget for the parent Support Category e.g. CAT0001, or, if no Flexible Budget for the parent Support Category is available it will need to be added to the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record e.g. 01_791_0106_8_3Level 2: Coordination Of Supports.
New 100% Cancellation Claim Rate
The ‘March 25th Update’ Price Guide also states that providers will be allowed to claim 100% of the agreed rate in the event of a service Cancellation. However, this only applies to services delivered on or after March 30th. For providers who wish to charge at the new 100% rate, it is critical to note that the Cancellation Reduced Price Percentage can be increased from 90% to 100% manually by your organisation in System Preferences. We recommend that this should only be increased to 100% in System Preferences:
- Once the Activity Sign Off has been completed (for any Activities delivered before March 30th that contain Cancelled Supports) to lock in the current Cancellation rate (generally 90%), as well as
- On or after March 30th, 2020
25th of March, 2020
NDIS Price Guide 2019-20 - effective 25th of March 2020
On Wednesday the 25th of March, 2020 the NDIA published Price Guides and related resources for the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue 2019–20 effective 25th March 2020.
We are working on introducing this into SupportAbility as soon as possible and we expect this will be available in an upgrade on Friday evening the 27th of March, 2020.
IMPORTANT
Given the 'March 25th Update' Price Guide will be released in SupportAbility after it's starting date, if providers wish to charge at the new prices for Supports delivered on or after this date, it is critical that your organisation holds off on completing the Activity Sign Off (for Activities delivered on or after March the 25th) until the new Price Guide is available in SupportAbility.
We will keep you updated regarding the progress of this from here.
29th of February, 2020
The 2019/20 ‘March 1st Update’ NDIS Price Guide has been added to SupportAbility in the upgrade on Saturday evening the 29th of February, 2020.
The updated Price Guide is now in use for Supports allocated to any Services delivered on or after this date, including:
- NDIS Support Allocations in Activities (provided the Price Guide Transition in the Client's Funding is set to ‘As soon as available’), and
- External Invoice Items (for providers of Plan Management).
The 'March 1st Update' NDIS Price Guide includes:
- Nine new line items for activity-based transport
- A price limit increase to Community Nursing line item 15_036_0114_1_3
The name & description for each of the new Activity Based Transport Supports is identical. Some Categories contain multiple versions of these new Supports. The only way to differentiate these is by Registration Group.
Whilst Registration Group information is already displayed in the Client Funding record, to assist providers in selecting and identifying the required Activity Based Transport Support, the Registration Group information pertaining to these Supports will be displayed in the NDIS Support Allocations window in Activities, as well as in the Bulk Payment Request (BPR).
26th of February, 2020
25th of February, 2020
NDIS Price Guide 2019-20 - effective 1 March 2020
On Monday the 24th of February, 2020 the NDIA published Price Guides and related resources for the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue 2019–20 effective 1 March 2020. The changes include:
- participant transport information including the reasonable levels of costs that providers can claim for non-labour transport costs
- nine new line items for activity-based transport including a revised example to help providers submit payment requests in the myplace provider portal for costs incurred when transporting or accompanying participants to and from community activities that are funded in participant plans
- providers of selected capacity building supports relating to accessing and maintaining employment or higher education can also claim for activity-based transport costs
- a price limit increase to Community Nursing line item 15_036_0114_1_3, to make consistent with Community Nursing line item 15_412_0114_1_3.
The new Activity Based Transport Items are as follows:
- 04_590_0125_5_1 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Participation In Community, Social And Civic Activities)
- 04_591_0136_5_1 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Group And Centre Based Activities)
- 04_592_0104_5_1 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: High Intensity Daily Personal Activities)
- 08_590_0106_2_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Assistance In Coordinating Or Managing Life Stages, Transitions And Supports)
- 09_590_0106_6_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Assistance In Coordinating Or Managing Life Stages, Transitions And Supports)
- 09_591_0117_6_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Development Of Daily Living And Life Skills)
- 10_590_0102_5_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Assistance to Access and Maintain Employment or higher education)
- 11_590_0117_7_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Development Of Daily Living And Life Skills)
- 13_590_0102_4_3 Activity Based Transport (Registration Group: Assistance to Access and Maintain Employment or higher education)
Similar to the new Price Guide effective the 1st of December, 2019, this Price Guide update, effective the 1st of March, 2020 will be added to SupportAbility as an entirely new NDIS Price Guide.
Our Engineering team are in the process of assessing these changes and once complete, we will be able to provide an ETA on their inclusion in SupportAbility.
We will provide more information regarding this as soon as possible.
7th of February, 2020
Whilst we are aware of the upcoming changes that have been announced allowing participants to utilise their core funding for transport, we are not in a position to know exactly how this will be managed in SupportAbility yet until we understand how these new Supports, which have not been made available yet, will be structured.
We understand these changes are set to be applicable for March the 1st, 2020 and we have therefore scheduled resources to account for these updates accordingly.
10th of December, 2019
SupportAbility v6.13 has been released. This updated includes the '2019/20 - December 1st Update' Price Guide and a solution for individualised TTP configuration. Please see the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) article for more information.
5th of December, 2019
NDIS Price Guide 2019-20 - effective 1 December 2019
We have recently completed our audit of the update to the 2019/2020 NDIS Price Guide and Price Catalogue, effective 1st of December, 2019. We have published a spreadsheet containing a detailed list of the changes identified in the updated Price Catalogue as a result of this audit, which can be viewed by using the following link:
Our current plan is to release SupportAbility v6.13 on the night of Tuesday, December 10th which will include the new '2019/20 - December 1st Update' Price Guide.
How will SupportAbility implement these changes?
The 2019/20 December Price Guide update will be added to SupportAbility as an entirely new NDIS Price Guide, separate to the existing 2019/20 Price Guide. To clearly distinguish the difference between these two Price Guides within SupportAbility, they will be named as follows:
- 2019/20 - July 1st
- 2019/20 - December 1st Update
NDIS Price Guide Transitions
NDIS Price Guide Transitions will automatically be created for all NDIS Direct Client Funding records with a funding period that includes December 1st, 2019 as part of the v6.13 release.
By default, new transitions for the 2019/20 - December 1st Price Guide will be configured to the same value selected in the 'Default for new NDIS Price Guide Transitions' setting in the Funding tab in System Preferences.
We recommend that providers review the NDIS Price Guide Transition Knowledge Base article to ensure that this System Preferences setting is configured correctly prior to the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.13.
Following the release, providers will be able to customise when individual Clients should transition to the '2019/20 - December 1st Update' Price Guide as required, using the configuration options in the Price Guide Transitions tab of the NDIS Direct Client Funding record. Please review the NDIS Price Guide Transition article linked above for more information regarding how this can be configured.
Calculated Budgets for STA And Assistance (Inc. Respite) Supports
3rd of December, 2019
NDIS Price Guide 2019-20 - effective 1 December 2019
The NDIA has advised that a small number of changes have been made to the NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue 2019-20 effective 1 December 2019.
Our Engineering team are in the process of assessing the changes made to the Price Guide and once complete, we will be able to provide an ETA on their inclusion in SupportAbility
We will provide more information regarding this as soon as possible.
Activate TTP at the Client Funding Level
In the upcoming upgrade SupportAbility v6.13, expected for release on Tuesday the 10th of December, 2019, providers will be able to configure TTP for each Client Funding record, based on your organisation’s contractual arrangements with individual Clients.
Please be sure to keep an eye out for the release notes for more information regarding this. A link will be provided to the updated article at this time.
29th of October, 2019
Activate TTP at the Client Funding Level
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide introduced the concept of Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) Price Limits for a range of attendant care and community participation supports. Providers are be technically allowed to claim these supports at the new, 7.5% higher TTP price limits, if they agree to comply with the requirements outlined in the Price Guide (including updating Service Agreements) before December 31st, 2019. The original guidance from the NDIA was that:
- the remaining relevant budgets on any NDIS Plans would be indexed to include this 7.5% TTP loading, and that
- relevant budgets in new NDIS Plans established after July 1st 2019, would also include an additional 7.5% TTP loading.
Whilst the NDIA kept the promise to index existing plans to account for TTP prices, they reneged on their promise to index new plans, established after July 2019 to accommodate TTP prices. This has created a situation where:
- only some clients have funding budgets that include the 7.5% TTP loading, and
- as soon as the client's with plans that include the 7.5% TTP loading have their plan reviewed, the relevant budgets will automatically reduce, as new plans established after July 2019 do not include the 7.5% TTP loading.
When we first discovered that the NDIA was not indexing new plans, established after July 1st, to include TTP pricing levels, we thought the Agency had simply made a mistake. We genuinely expected that the Agency would realise this mistake, reverse the decision and start including the 7.5% TTP loading in new plans.
With the prospect of the NDIA resolving the ongoing issues around TTP indexation growing more unlikely with each passing day, SupportAbility has made the decision to intervene in an effort to assist providers to manage the current status quo. To this extent, we will be developing a facility to allow providers to control TTP pricing at the Client Funding level, rather than only system-wide, which is the current functionality.
2nd of October, 2019
The upgrade to SupportAbility v6.10.3 last night incorporated the changes in response to the October 2019 NDIS Price Guide update, as outlined below.
However, this morning we identified that the NDIA made additional changes to the NDIS Support Catalogue without notice. These changes were review and the following amendments were found:
- No Supports were added
- 2 Supports were removed (15_302_0134_1_3, 06_182499211_0111_2_2)
- 1 Support has an updated name (01_760_0128_3_3)
- 4 of the newly added Supports have a price change for VIC group only (01_700_0118_1_3, 01_701_0128_1_3,
01_720_0118_1_3, 01_721_0128_1_3)
We have updated our published Price Catalogue changes spreadsheet to include these changes which can be viewed by using the following link:
NDIS 2019/20 Price Guide - October Update - List of changes
We will be releasing SupportAbility v6.10.4 to all installations tonight which will include these changes.
26th of September, 2019
Our audit of the update to the 2019/2020 NDIS Price Guide and Price Catalogue, effective 1st of October, 2019 has been completed. We have published a spreadsheet containing a detailed list of changes identified in the updated Price Catalogue as a result of this audit, which can be viewed by using the following link:
NDIS 2019/20 Price Guide - October Update - List of changes
At this stage, we expect to release an update to SupportAbility on the night of Tuesday, October 1st, which will incorporate these changes. For any applicable Support Items (listed below) information messages have been included and will display in the following locations:
- NDIS Direct Client Funding records
- NDIS Plan Managed Client Funding records
- NDIS Support Allocations for Clients within Activities
- NDIS Support Allocations within External Invoices Items (for providers of Plan Management)
The following changes have been made:
- 2 Support Categories with updated names
- Category 0001 has been renamed to 'Assistance with daily life'
- Category 0007 has been renamed to 'Support Coordination'
- 92 new Support Items
- 'Valid from October 2019' information message will be displayed
- 1 Support Item has been removed
- 'Removed from October 2019' information message will be displayed
- 9 Supports (from Category 0005) have a new reference number
- Both the original reference number (e.g. 05_220300011_0113_1_2 Assistive Products Relating To Vision) and new reference number (e.g. 05_220300111_0113_1_2 Assistive Products Relating To Vision) for these Supports will be available. An information message will be displayed on both versions, to inform Staff that the reference number was changed in October 2019.
- 63 Support Items have an updated name
- For example, Supports with the word 'evening' included have been updated to 'weekday afternoon'
- 4 Support Items have a revised Price Limit
- 01_049_0107_1_1 Establishment Fee For Personal Care/Community Access no longer has a Price Limit and will now be available to customise the price to the appropriate level.
- The Price Limit for the remaining 3 Supports will not be updated to reflect the new October 2019 Price Limit. However, an information message will include the new October 2019 Price Limit information. In order to charge at the updated Price Limit, these Supports will need to have a Custom Price configured in the Client's Funding record.
We will confirm via release notes once this update has been released.
24th of September, 2019
Today, the NDIA announced in a Provider Newsflash email, that they have published an update to the 2019/2020 NDIS Price Guide. This update is due to take effect on October 1st, 2019. The Newsflash email states:
The team at SupportAbility are currently in the process of auditing both the updated NDIS Price Guide and the updated NDIS Price Catalogue to identify all of the changes made. We will provide further updates shortly, containing details of our findings, as well as our plans for incorporating these Price Guide changes into SupportAbility.
11th of September, 2019
The new 'Non-Face-to-Face' Claim Type is now available for eligible Supports in Activities and External Invoices on or after July 1st 2019 with the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.9.
30th of August, 2019
Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request - Step by step guide updated (August 2019)
It appears that the Provider Portal Bulk Payment Request - Step by step guide has been updated recently as this is now dated 'August 2019'. There was no announcement that this had been updated, other than an indication on the 'Key Resources - Step by step guides' page of the provider toolkit, that this was last updated on the 20th of August, 2019.
The Non-Face-To-Face Claim Type Code format of 'NF2F' to be used in the NDIS Bulk Payment Request file has been included. We are in the process of reviewing the entire document and the outlined specifications against the current format to ensure there are no further changes in addition to this. We will provide more information regarding our findings and also when to expect updates in SupportAbility to this effect in due course.
27th of August, 2019
Reduced price percentage for cancellations
v1.1 of the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide introduced a change to the way that providers are expected to submit claims for Cancelled Supports. This change indicates that Cancelled Supports should be claimed at 100% of the agreed price rather than at the reduced rate of 90% as previously required. This presents a series of significant issues previously outlined below.
SupportAbility has raised this issue directly with David Moody, Acting CEO of National Disability Service (NDS). Both SupportAbility and NDS have raised this issue with senior officials at the NDIA. Our CEO, William, spoke with David last Friday the 23rd of August at the NDS Essential Briefing in Hobart. David advised that there has been no response to date from the NDIA on this issue.
SupportAbility continues to liaise with providers in an effort to understand how the myplace provider portal is managing this. The majority of feedback received indicates that the portal continues to operate in the same manner as it did last year (albeit in contrast to what the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide states).
We have only received notification from a single provider (this morning) indicating that the NDIA is paying claims for Cancelled Supports at 90% of the claimed value. As a result, we have reached out to a number of other providers to confirm their experience in this regard and we are awaiting this feedback.
It is important to note that setting the 'Reduced price percentage for Cancellations' to 100% will have the effect of not reducing the agreed price of the relevant claimed Support/s in the event of a Cancellation in SupportAbility. Please be aware that even if the NDIA pay Cancellation claims at 90% of the agreed claim value, the utilisation in SupportAbility will currently incorporate the full claim value (100%).
We will provide additional updates as more information comes to light.
5th of August, 2019
v6.7.4 Update to the 'Reduced price percentage for cancellations' setting
As stated below, registered providers are now expected to submit Cancelled Support claims at the full agreed rate rather than the reduced rate of 90%.
To address this, the upgrade to v6.7.4 of SupportAbility (being released on the 5th of August), will allow providers to update the 'Reduced price percentage for cancellations' setting in System Preferences to 100%.
Configuring this to 100% will have the effect of not reducing the agreed price of the relevant claimed Support/s in the event of a Cancellation in SupportAbility. Please be aware that whilst the NDIA will pay Cancellation claims at 90% of the agreed claim value, the utilisation in SupportAbility will incorporate the full claim value i.e. will reflect 100% and not 90%.
We are attempting to get clarification from the NDIA and the NDS regarding the automatic reduction of the value of Cancelled claims to 90% and the ramifications of this for Plan Managers and Self-managed participants before making any further changes in this area.
2nd of August, 2019
myplace provider portal update to affect Non-face-to-face and Cancellation claims
On June 28th, the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide was updated to version v1.1 which, among other things, provided additional information (on pages 17-18) around the manner in which cancellations are to be claimed and processed via the myplace provider portal. The Price Guide states:
When making a claim for a cancelled support the provider should claim for the full agreed price of the support and indicate in the payment system that the claim is for a cancellation. The payment system will reduce the claim to 90% of the full agreed price.
On July 19th, we received confirmation from multiple providers that the myplace provider portal was not automatically reducing the (already reduced) claim values for Supports with the Cancelled Claim Type, as stipulated in the Price Guide, and that claims are being paid, as they were last year, at the exact price claimed in the NDIS Bulk Payment Request.
However, since then, the NDIA's latest Provider Newsletter references the Annual price review page on the NDIA website, last updated on July 31st, and explains that the myplace provider portal is expected to be updated on August 3rd to include changes around Non-face-to-face and Cancellation claims. Unfortunately, the Bulk Payment Request step-by-step guide has not yet been updated to indicate the claim code that providers will need to use in NDIS Bulk Payment requests files for Non-face-to-face claims.
Furthermore, as previously communicated, the new rules around claiming for Cancellations are far from practical, making claim reconciliations near impossible, and exhibiting deeper flaws when considered in the context on Plan Managers, given that Plan Managers need to claim funds from the myplace provider portal to the exact value they are being invoiced by service providers. Several efforts have been made to contact both the NDIA and the NDS to seek guidance and clarification on this issue. We received no response from the NDIA and the NDS were of the opinion that the myplace provider portal had worked this way for the past year, which we know was incorrect.
We are working with providers to bring these serious issues to the attention of both the NDIA and NDIS and will provide updates as more information comes to light. In addition, we are in the process of reviewing prospective solutions to address these changes in SupportAbility.
26th of July, 2019
v6.7 deployed
The second release in response to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide was deployed last night with the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.7.
Claim Types
As well as when adding Invoice Items to External Invoices (for providers of Plan Management Services):
N.B. The available Claim Types in the NDIS Support Allocations window of an Activity are those of the current Price Guide, regardless of how the Client's NDIS Direct Price Guide Transition settings are configured.
Cancelled Claim Type
The Claim Type of 'Cancelled' however, is only available to select from where applicable. once the Client has been marked as absent and 'No Charge' has not been selected. A 'Cancellation Reason' is also required:
The Claim Type then defaults to Cancelled, and may be updated to the appropriate Cancelled Claim Type as required:
The 'Reduced Price Percentage' of 90% (default), or as configured in System Preferences, is applied to Cancelled Supports.
Please see the following for more information regarding Cancellations:
- The 'Cancellation and "no show" management' section of the Finance & NDIS | Preparation article, and
- The 'Cancellations' section of the Allocating NDIS Support Items in Activities article.
19th of July, 2019
Cancellation claims
On June 28th, the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide was updated to version v1.1 which, among other things, provided additional information (on pages 17-18) around the manner in which cancellations are to be claimed and processed via the myplace provider portal. The Price Guide states:
When making a claim for a cancelled support the provider should claim for the full agreed price of the support and indicate in the payment system that the claim is for a cancellation. The payment system will reduce the claim to 90% of the full agreed price.
The Price Guide then goes on to provide a detailed working example (example #5):
Please see the 'Cancellation and "no show" management' section of the Finance & NDIS | Preparation article and the 'Cancellations' section of the Allocating NDIS Support Items in Activities articles for more information regarding how this currently works in SupportAbility.
When is v6.7 expected?
The upgrade to v6.7 (as per the 11th of July update below) is to be expected on the evening of Thursday the 25th of July, 2019. However, we will provide confirmation of this closer to this date.
We previously communicated that the 'Old: 2017/2018' NDIS Payment Request file format will be decommissioned from v6.7 onwards. However, this removal will be delayed until further notice.
12th of July, 2019
When is v6.7 expected?
The upgrade to v6.7 (as per the 11th of July update below) is to be expected on the evening of Thursday the 25th of July, 2019. However, we will provide confirmation of this closer to this date.
Additional omission from v6.7: removal of the 'Old: 2017/2018' NDIS Bulk Payment Request export file format
We previously communicated that the 'Old: 2017/2018' NDIS Payment Request file format will be decommissioned from v6.7 onwards. However, this will be delayed until clarification regarding the Non-Face-To-Face Claim Type has been received.
Why haven't the new prices been added to the Client NDIS Funding records in the upgrade to v6.6?
We have received a number of queries regarding this. To clarify, the information in the Client Funding Details is not updated when a new Price Guide comes into effect. When a new Price Guide comes into effect, it is the NDIS Support Allocations that are updated to using the new Price Guide, in Activities and External Invoice Items for Services delivered on or after the 1st of July.
For example, the Support Item 01_011_0107_1_1 exists in the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record and displays the Price Limit of $48.14 (2018/19 NDIS Price Limit):
However, this Client is set to using the latest Price Guide given their Price Guide Transition is set to 'As soon as available' (as per the default):
In this example, the TTP Setting has been activated, therefore, in this Client's NDIS Support Allocations, the updated TTP version of this Support is in use, and the Client is set to using the new Price Guide:
It is, however, displayed in the Client Funding Details with the Price Limit of $48.14 due to the Client's Funding having been created in a period where the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide was in use.
Invoices are generated based on the Client's NDIS Support Allocations which use the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide.
If Supports from the new Price Guide need to be invoiced and/or claimed, these may be added to the Client's NDIS Funding record as required e.g:
Alternatively, if a Flexible Budget for the parent category is available in the Client's Funding, the required 'new' Support will be available for allocation.
11th of July, 2019
Following the release of SupportAbility v6.6 where Price Guide Transitions were created for each NDIS Direct Client Funding record spanning July 1st, 2019, the introduction of the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide and functionality for Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) pricing, we are now working on SupportAbility v6.7. This upgrade is predominantly aimed at addressing changes to the way Claim Types are to be used and claimed under the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide.
v6.7: Claim Type availability per Support Item.
The 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide introduced the concept of Claim Types which was designed to provide the Agency with more detailed information around service cancellations and "no shows", and which portion of a service related to Travel and NDIS Report Writing. In the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, the Travel and Report Writing Claim Types were able to be used for all NDIS Supports, and the Cancellation Claim Type was limited to Supports in Category 1, 4 and 15.
The 2019/20 NDIS Support Catalogue now identifies individually for each Support, if the Claim Types of Travel, NDIA Report Writing, and Cancellation can be used and claimed. SupportAbility v6.7 is designed to address these new rules and only allow providers to choose the Claim Types that each Support Item allows.
Cancellations
We have not received any clarification regarding the changes to Cancellations. On page 18 of the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide, it states that:
The providers we have liaised with regarding this are adamant the portal has not automatically reduced the claim to 90% of the full agreed price for Cancelled Claim Types historically. We are awaiting feedback based on Cancellation Claim Types being processed if this is a new feature of the myplace provider portal, however, it is our understanding that claims are not being reduced and that this may be an error in the Price Guide PDF. Until we have confirmation otherwise, the current functionality of the reduced price percentage will be applied to all Supports that Cancellations are allowed for following the upgrade to v6.7.
Please see the 'Cancellation and "no show" management' section of the Finance & NDIS | Preparation article and the 'Cancellations' section of the Allocating NDIS Support Items in Activities articles for more information regarding how this currently works in SupportAbility.
Omission from v6.7: Non-Face-to-Face Claim Type
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide also introduced the new 'Non-Face-To-Face' Claim Type. The Support Catalogue goes on to identify which Support Items the 'Non-Face-To-Face' Claim Type is available for which was updated in v1.1 updated on July 1st. However, at this point in time, we have received word from the NDIA (via one of our subscribing providers) that the new 'Non-Face-To-Face' Claim Type is currently not working in the myplace provider portal and that providers will not be able to claim the 'Non-Face-To-Face' Claim Type until some time in August.
Additionally, as per a previous update, it does not appear that the NDIA's Bulk Payment Request step-by-step guide has been updated to include the new Non-Face-to-Face Claim Type. Until the NDIA provide this information, we cannot include this new Claim Type in SupportAbility as the required code to include in the Bulk Payment Request file is unknown. We are continuing to seek clarification from the NDIA and the NDS regarding this matter with urgency. We encourage providers to also seek guidance on this matter in an effort to assist.
For these reasons, the 'Non-Face-To-Face' Claim Type will not be enabled in SupportAbility until we have received notification that the myplace provider portal will accept these claims, as well as the correct Claim Type code that is required in the Bulk Payment Request file export.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Indexation of Client Funding Budgets
Whilst the functionality to assist with TTP Pricing has been released, the Client's NDIS Support Budgets are not being indexed in SupportAbility. The Indexation of NDIS Plan budgets when a new Price Guide is released article has been updated recently to explain why. When indexation is required, it must be done manually in SupportAbility following the Client's Funding being indexed in the myplace provider portal to ensure that the value matches exactly.
9th of July, 2019
v6.6 locked and loaded
The upgrade to v6.6 is set for tonight Tuesday, July 9th between 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm AET. A friendly reminder that whilst this upgrade is being applied, each SupportAbility installations may be offline for up to 20 minutes. 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.
TTP
This is the first release in response to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide which sees the introduction of the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) setting in System Preferences and it's associated functionality, as well as including the new NDIS Support Catalogues (NSW/Vic/Qld/Tas, and, WA/SA/ACT/NT). Please review the Temporary Transition Payment (TTP) article for more information.
NDIS Price Guide Transitions
NDIS Price Guide Transitions will be created for all NDIS Direct Client Funding records which span the period of before, and after, July 1st, 2019. This means that providers can customise when individual Clients should transition to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide as required. Please review the NDIS Price Guide Transition article for more information.
Invalid Supports
In the case where a Client is set to use the new 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide, and Supports which are no longer valid have been allocated in Activities on or after July 1st, 2019 (for example, Support Items which have been removed), it is important to note that the validation message 'Invalid NDIS Support Items Allocated' will appear under the Client's Funding Source:
When the NDIS Support Allocations window is opened more information is displayed regarding the invalid Support Item:
This may be removed by selecting the 'Delete' icon and a new Support Item Allocated as required. N.B. If the Activity Sign Off is performed and the invalid Support has not been removed, it will be removed upon Sign Off.
If however, your organisation wishes to claim for this Support, you will need to adjust the Client's Price Guide Transition to Never, or a Specific Date after the dates of the Activities this Item is allocated, for example, 1st of August:
In order for the previous Price Guide to be used in the NDIS Support Allocations window.
Where this Support was still valid in SupportAbility, and claimable if an Active Service Booking is in place.
Claim Types
IMPORTANT - Claim Types have not been updated as part of this release, and the 2018/19 Price Guide rules in relation to Claim Types will continue to be applied until the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.7.
8th of July, 2019
Non-Face-to-Face Claim Types
It does not appear that the NDIA's Bulk Payment Request step-by-step guide has been updated to include the new Non-Face-to-Face Claim Type.
This is required for SupportAbility to release v6.7 which includes the new Claim Type functionality. Until the NDIA provide this information, v6.7 cannot be completed and released. We are seeking clarification from the NDIA and the NDS regarding this matter with urgency. We encourage providers to also seek guidance on this matter in an effort to assist.
Changes to claiming for Cancellations
We are also seeking clarification from the NDIA regarding the changes to claiming for Cancellations as outlined on the 5th of July.
5th of July, 2019
TTP Setting & Support Catalogue (v6.6)
The first release in response to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogue which will see the introduction of the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) setting in System Preferences and it's associated functionality (as outlined on the 26th of June), as well as including the new NDIS Support Catalogues (NSW/Vic/Qld/Tas, and, WA/SA/ACT/NT) is scheduled in the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.6. We are currently expecting v6.6 to be released to all subscribers on the evening of Tuesday, July 9th between 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm AET. Please be aware that whilst this upgrade is being applied, each SupportAbility installations may be offline for up to 20 minutes. 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.
N.B. Claim Types will not be updated as part of v6.6, and the 2018/19 Price Guide rules in relation to Claim Types will continue to be applied until the upgrade to SupportAbility v6.7.
Claim Types (v6.7)
We have identified a change in regards to claiming for Cancellations in v1.1 of the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide: On page 18, it states that:
NDIS Bulk Payment Request (v6.7)
1st of July, 2019
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide and Support Catalogues have been updated today to specifically address the issues in relation to pricing for group supports. This information is in the process of being updated SupportAbility.
There will be two releases in relation to the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide. The first release will see the introduction of the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) setting in System Preferences and it's associated functionality (as outlined on the 26th of June), as well as including the new NDIS Support Catalogues (NSW/Vic/Qld/Tas, and, WA/SA/ACT/NT) in SupportAbility.
The release soon after this will ensure the correct Claim Type is available for selection in each Client's NDIS Support Allocations in Activities or External Invoice Items (for providers of Plan Management Services).
27th of June, 2019
When will the 2019/20 Price Guide and new functionality be available in our SupportAbility installation?
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide has only been published by the NDIA five business days before it is due to take effect, and the changes required are far from trivial. To complicate the matter further, the NDIA is still in the process of making corrections to the new Price Guide and Price Catalogue and is expected to release updated versions again on Monday, July 1st, 2019.
Our Engineering and Customer Success teams are working hard to release these features as soon as humanly possible, however, this it is not going to be possible by July 1st, 2019. Our current estimated time frame for delivery is the second week (8th - 12th) of July.
With this in mind, if your organisation wishes to use the new NDIS Price Guide and/or charge at TTP pricing, we recommend that providers:
- Understand the compliance obligations associated with claiming Supports at the TTP pricing and decide if your organisation plans to activate this setting in SupportAbility.
- Update all service bookings in the Myplace Provider Portal that your organisation plans to claim TTP Supports against.
- For Activities that commence from July 1st onwards, ensure Client Support Logs are not completed, and these Activities are not Signed Off until this functionality is released.
- N.B. Providers may need to find alternative ways to process payroll between July 1st and the release date. The Activity Schedule Report::Staff Schedule can potentially be used to derive Staff Timesheet information for this period.
- Following the release, providers wishing to claim at TTP Pricing levels must activate the TTP Pricing setting in System Preferences first, ahead of Activities from July 1st onwards being Signed Off, Invoiced and claimed.
If your organisation wishes to generate Staff Timesheets and Invoices & NDIS Bulk Payment Requests, using the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guides, you can continue performing the Activity Sign Off and generating these reports as usual.
26th of June, 2019
The team at SupportAbility have audited the new 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide and CSV Price Catalogue released by the NDIA yesterday. The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide contains several changes to the way in which NDIS Service Providers will be required to provide and claim for specific Supports in the Price Catalogue, however, the guidance provided by the Agency does not appear adequate enough to inform providers how they are expected to comply with these new requirements. We have emailed a series of questions to both the NDIA and the NDS in an effort to seek further clarity on these issues.
The core changes that affect the way in which Providers will use SupportAbility include:
- New Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) Price Limits
- New Claim Type options and rules
1. Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) Price Limits
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide introduces the concept of Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) Price Limits for a range of attendant care and community participation supports. Providers will be allowed to claim these Supports at the new, higher TTP price limits, if they agree to comply with the requirements outlined in the Price Guide (including updating Service Agreements) before December 31st, 2019.
We are planning to allow providers to Activate TTP price limits globally in System Preferences, essentially declaring that your organisation is planning to be TTP compliant by December 31st, and wish to use TTP pricing from July 1st onwards. This is only applicable for Direct Service provision. Once TTP price limits are activated:
- All applicable Support Items allocated in Activities from the 1st of July onwards (which are not Signed Off and do not have a completed Client Support Log) will be converted to the TTP equivalent Support Item and pricing where possible.
- In Activities, when allocating Supports, the TTP version of Supports where TTP pricing is available will only be available for selection.
- Any NDIS Direct Client Funding records from July 1st, 2019 onwards, containing Support Items for which TTP pricing is available, that had a calculated Budget will have this Budget converted to a Total Budget Value dollar amount.
- Both TTP and non-TTP NDIS Support expenditure/utilisation will be included against the existing Flexible Category and Support Item Budgets configured in the current NDIS Direct Client Funding records. There will be no need for providers to create separate TTP Budgets to accommodate for allocating TTP Supports. Simply setting this in System Preferences will mean that the TTP Supports are utilised.
Plan Management providers will be able to add TTP supports to External Invoices, irrespective of whether the TTP setting is activated in System Preferences or not.
2. Claim Types
The 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide introduced the concept of Claim Types which was designed provide the Agency with more detailed information around service cancellations, and which portions of a service related to Travel and NDIS Report Writing. In the 2018/19 NDIS Price Guide, the Travel and Report Writing Claim Types were able to be used for all NDIS Supports, and the Cancellation Claim Type was able to be used for any Supports in Category 1, 4 and 15.
The 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide makes two distinct changes to these rules:
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A new Claim Type of 'Non-Face-To-Face' has been introduced.
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The Price Catalogue now identifies individually for each Support, if the Claim Types of Travel, Report Writing, Non-Face-To-Face, and Cancellation can be used and claimed.
Amendments will be made in SupportAbility to limit the use of these Claim Types where appropriate.
25th of June, 2019
We are aware that the NDIA has published the 2019/2020 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.
19th of June, 2019
Resources
Each year SupportAbility dedicates its resources entirely to managing the 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.
This may mean longer than usual wait times on support responses. We thank you in advance for your understanding and patience with us during this critical period.
Price Guide Transition default
When a new NDIS Price Guide comes into effect, it is automatically applied 'as soon as available' in SupportAbility. This means that from July 1st, 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.
A new setting has been added to the Funding tab in System Preferences, where providers may choose not to apply the new NDIS Price Guide as soon as it is available, by configuring the NDIS Price Guide transition default setting 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 NDIS Price Guide Transition setting may also be configured in each individual Client's NDIS Funding record. Please see the NDIS Price Guide Transition article for more information.
If your organisation does not have a specific clause in your Service Agreements stating that the prices of NDIS Supports may change to align with NDIS Price Guide updates, configuring the NDIS Price Guide transition default to 'Never' is recommended as soon as possible ahead of the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guide release.
2019 NDIS Price Guides
There has been no information published by the NDIA regarding the 2019/20 NDIS Price Guides yet.