NDIS minister Bill Shorten's announcement last month of a taskforce to tackle unregistered and unregulated NDIS providers has been widely welcomed by those working in the sector.
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This taskforce will be targeting differential pricing, the practice where some providers charge people with NDIS plan funding more than those who do not.
To quote NDIS Minister Bill Shorten "(we're) going to outlaw the wedding tax, which currently applies to people with disabilities on the NDIS."
New laws will be introduced by the federal government that will give the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission the options of sanctioning or even banning providers who have been knowingly overcharging NDIS participants.
These changes will safeguard the funding of individual participants on NDIS plans from being wasted on services with inflated prices and help the government in their goal of bringing down the cost of the scheme, by ensuring providers charge fairly for the services and equipment they provide to participants.
These changes are excellent news not only for participants, but also for the registered providers who are working hard within the system to deliver these products and services with honesty, integrity, and transparency.
Currently, registered NDIS providers, such as St.Giles, work within a nationally consistent regulatory framework where all workers have completed a NDIS worker screening check, organisations must comply with all NDIS standards, complete numerous certification audits, maintain records of all incidents, and complete mandatory reporting of issues to the NDIS in a timely fashion.
There is little to no oversight of unregistered providers, with nothing more than the goodwill of providers and their workers directing the quality of service on offer. In turn, these providers are able to operate without the scrutiny, reporting requirements and significant financial overheads associated with compliance and safeguarding measures.
This makes the NDIS is an uneven playing field for organisations such as ours.
Based on 2023 figures there were 16,000 registered NDIS providers and over 150,000 unregistered providers across Australia.
Some in the industry believe over-regulation and over-monitoring of providers has been a detriment to more providers seeking NDIS registration, however the government has flagged that in time, all NDIS providers will need to be registered if they want to continue working with participants.
By levelling the playing field and registering all providers working within the NDIS, it will ensure that the quality of services remains high for participants, families can trust their loved ones are being treated fairly and ethically and reduce the risk of differential pricing and other unacceptable pricing practices that Taskforce has been created to address.
HONNI PITT IS THE CEO OF ST. GILES
