The board of the National Disability Insurance Agency commissioned an independent pricing review into the NDIS costs last July, in response to feedback from participant and survivor groups.

Consulting firm McKinsey and Company released the report this month, which included 25 recommendations.

Tasmanian NDS manager Will Kestin said the report was “flawed in its rigour and research”.

“The report bases its assumptions on a sample of engagement with only 22 providers around the country,  when there are well over a 1,500,” he said.

An NDIA spokesman said that was incorrect.

“In conducting the independent pricing review, McKinsey and Company consulted and/or received submissions from over 1000 individuals and organisations, including National Disability Services,” he said.

“The NDIA has given in-principle support to all of the report's 25 independent recommendations, and remains committed to working with participants, providers, and the disability sector deliver the NDIS.”

Mr Kestin said the report did not “provide substantiation on its conclusions, but more importantly doesn’t take the new quality and safeguard requirements into consideration, which will add additional burdens on providers”.

The report’s key findings included adding a third tier to the complexity loading to account for higher level skills or experience of workers and additional training required, as well as allowing providers to charge up to 45 minutes of travel time in rural areas.

Mr Kestin said further work was needed in defining the requirements for the third tier, and also in the field of transport.

“The third level would not exclude the option to quote for people with extremely complex needs. The report recommends allowing providers in rural areas to charge up to 45 minutes of travel time (rather than the current 20 minutes) and allowing providers to quote on the delivery of services in isolated regions. If implemented, this would cover substantial parts of Australia, although it would still not cover much of the population of Burnie and other regional parts of Tasmania.”

The report also recognised there were “cohorts of participants for which supply shortages are high-risk due to the increased cost of service provision and limited availability of workforce”.

 Mr Kestin said it could mean there were tough times ahead for the state.

“Almost all of Tasmania would fall into ‘thin and regional markets’.”