Opportunities for care and support harmonisation
Currently, pricing is not aligned across the care and support sector, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), aged care and veterans’ care. This means that some services that are the same or similar attract different prices, depending on which government program is paying for the service.
The impacts of this could mean that:
- service users may unnecessarily pay more for services or be unable to find services
- workers may be drawn to routinely move between sectors
- providers may struggle with rationalising their business, within and across the care and support sector.
In developing advice on pricing reform for the NDIS, IHACPA will use our extensive and transferable expertise in pricing for health and aged care. We will listen to and work closely with the disability community to identify opportunities for alignment across the care and support sector.
We will draw on our understanding of the factors which influence markets and their application, and our ongoing data collections across the sectors. This will inform our report back to government on opportunities to strengthen the care and support market through better aligned pricing.
For participants, this could mean that prices better reflect the nature of the service you are receiving, whether you access that service under the NDIS or aged care. Better aligned pricing can also bring greater stability to providers and workers, supporting you to build meaningful relationships with them.
For providers, this could support predictability of pricing across government-funded care and support services. This could result in a more stable workforce, support provider sustainability, aligned timing of pricing advice, and opportunities for single data collections where providers operate across the NDIS, aged care and/or veterans’ care.
For workers, this could mean you receive a consistent price based on the services you provide, instead of being affected by the sector the funding comes from. The stability that harmonised prices could deliver to providers could also support you to access more consistent working arrangements.
Find out how you can have your say on our pricing advice for NDIS reform.