NDIS Price Guide 2026-27: Every Change Allied Health and NDIS Providers Need to Know

From 1 July 2026 the NDIA has split therapy prices three ways for the first time in years. One profession goes up. Several come down. Most are held. And underneath the headline rate moves sits a bigger structural change that will touch how every therapy provider invoices: travel, non-face-to-face time and report writing are being pulled out of the service rate into their own line items.

These are the NDIA's recommendations from its Annual Pricing Review, reflected in the published NDIS Pricing Schedule for 2026-27. This guide walks through every change that matters to allied health and NDIS provider businesses, with the real numbers, and links to a deeper breakdown of each one.

The big picture and where these prices come from

The Annual Pricing Review (APR) is the NDIA's yearly assessment of NDIS prices. It looks at what providers actually charge, how that compares to equivalent markets like the MBS and private health insurance, and whether participants are getting access. The 2026-27 outcome is the schedule that governs your price caps from 1 July 2026.

There is a structural shift coming behind it. The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026, introduced into Parliament on 14 May 2026, proposes to give the Minister power to make a binding pricing determination informed by NDIA advice. In plain terms, the APR's recommendations could move from guidance toward something with teeth. We cover the Bill's eligibility, budget and registration reforms in the Future Generations Bill explainer, so this guide stays focused on the prices themselves.

Most changes below take effect from 1 July 2026. One exception, the SCCP unregistered reduction, starts 1 January 2027.

Therapy price moves: one up, several down, most held

Here is every therapy line in one place. National maximum hourly rates, 2025-26 compared with 2026-27.

A few of these deserve a closer look.

Psychology is the only therapy profession to get an increase. It rises $20.00 to $252.99 an hour, an 8.6 per cent lift, and it applies uniformly across every jurisdiction. The NDIA sat the new rate against three benchmarks at the 75th percentile for a 60-minute session: MBS at $260.00, private health insurance at $250.00 and $252.00. The new NDIS rate lands squarely in that band. The detail is in the psychology price increase breakdown.

Dietitians and exercise physiologists are cut for benchmark reasons. Dietitians drop $10.00 to $178.99, the second annual cut in a row, after the NDIS price sat 21.9 per cent above the private health insurance 75th percentile and 24.3 per cent above the MBS equivalent. Exercise physiologists drop $5.00 to $161.99, having sat 9.9 per cent above the MBS 75th percentile. Both moves are explained in the dietitian and exercise physiology cut analysis.

Other Professionals takes the largest cut of any line. It falls $37.83 to $156.16, a 19.5 per cent reduction, aligning it to the counselling and creative therapies anchor rate. Early Childhood supports are carved out and stay at $193.99. The category also gains a new sibling: Orientation and Mobility Specialists now have their own line item at $156.16, after the NDIS Commission recognised the registration in March 2025. And the Other Professionals category will require practitioner identification at the point of claim, closing off the unidentified-discipline catch-all. The full picture is in the Other Professionals and OMS guide.

Physiotherapy held at $183.99. Last year's APR cut it $10, and monitoring since showed no access disruption, so the NDIA left it where it is.

The claiming shake-up: travel, reports and admin time pulled apart

This is the change that will reshape how therapy practices invoice, regardless of which rate band you sit in. Under the 2026-27 schedule, provider travel, non-face-to-face time and NDIA-requested reports are now separate line items, distinct from the direct service rate. Each profession carries a suffixed set of items: Direct Service, Cancellation, Non-Face-to-Face, Provider Travel, NDIA Requested Reports and Telehealth.

The number that will sting is travel. Provider travel for therapy is priced at 50 per cent of the service hourly rate. That means a dietitian's travel is claimable at $89.50, an exercise physiologist's at $81.00 and a counsellor's at $78.08. If your service model leans on home and community visits, the economics of that travel just changed, and your scheduling and pricing need to reflect it. We unpack the operational fallout in the travel and report-writing unbundling guide.

Why 69 per cent charging the max matters to you

In the six months to 31 December 2025, 69 per cent of all claims were made at the maximum published price, up from 66 per cent the year before. Registered providers claimed at the published price 73 per cent of the time; unregistered providers 61 per cent. The NDIA's read on this is blunt: the published price functions as the prevailing market rate, not a ceiling that most providers sit below.

That framing is the engine behind every cut in this review. When almost seven in ten claims hit the cap, lowering the cap lowers what the market actually charges. It also tells you something about your own positioning. If you only ever charge the maximum, you are indistinguishable from the field on price, which means you have to be distinguishable on everything else. We dig into what this signals for providers in the charging-at-the-maximum analysis.

What held, and the reviews coming behind it

Two big areas were left unchanged this round, but neither is settled.

Support coordination prices held. Level 1 Support Connection stays at $80.06, Level 2 Coordination of Supports at $100.14, and Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination at $190.54. The market sits across more than 291,800 participants, with a striking concentration at the top: the largest 201 providers, each supporting 250-plus participants, took about 35 per cent of total claims and averaged $1.1 million each, while around 3,000 providers supported a single participant.

Plan management fee held at $104.45 per month. Despite provider calls to lift it and to reinstate the establishment fee removed in the prior APR, the monthly fee stays put. The whole plan management pricing approach is flagged for review, on the basis that its costs are driven by transaction volume and systems rather than labour movements. With $13.4 billion in participant payments processed and $292 million in monthly fees, this is a large market to redesign. The detail is in the plan management fee guide.

SCCP: the first registered-versus-unregistered price split

Social, community and civic participation supports are getting a change that has never appeared in the scheme before. From 1 January 2027, SCCP supports delivered by unregistered providers, including high-intensity variants, drop 10 per cent, and indexation on those supports ceases. Registered provider prices and their indexation are maintained.

The reasoning is that SCCP has two distinct markets. Many unregistered sole traders and small businesses on one side, and fewer registered providers carrying heavier governance and compliance obligations on the other. Current pricing does not distinguish them, and claims cluster near the maximum for both. This is the first explicit registered-versus-unregistered price differential in the NDIS, and it is worth watching closely if you are weighing up registration. We cover the decision both in the SCCP unregistered cut breakdown and the broader register-or-stay-unregistered article.

STA unbundling and the wage engine behind DSW prices

Short Term Accommodation is currently a single bundled daily price covering accommodation, food, utilities and disability support worker costs. The APR finds that inconsistent with Section 10 of the NDIS Act, which funds disability-related supports, not everyday living costs like food and power. The recommendation is to unbundle STA into an accommodation component aligned with Medium Term Accommodation at $158.66, plus new self-care and community-access support items structured by day of week and time of day, with High Intensity and behaviours-of-concern loadings claimable.

Underneath the disability support worker supports sits the NDIS Disability Support Worker Cost Model, linked to the SCHADS Award and adjusted for the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review decision dated 2 June 2026. That cost model will be comprehensively reviewed in 2026-27, since its benchmarking still dates to 2020-21 market conditions, and the Fair Work Commission's gender-based undervaluation review covering SCHADS could restructure the wage inputs entirely. Psychosocial Recovery Coach prices follow the same cost-model indexation. Nursing and other supports outside the cost model are indexed by a weighted 80/20 blend of the ABS Wage Price Index and CPI. Remote loading stays at plus 40 per cent and very remote at plus 50 per cent, both unchanged.

What providers should do now

None of this is about gaming the schedule. The providers who come out ahead will be the ones who understand the change early and position the business well around it. A few practical moves:

• Model the unbundling before 1 July. If you deliver therapy with travel or report writing baked into your service rate, rebuild your quoting against the new separate line items so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Re-check the cut professions. If you run dietetics, exercise physiology or anything that claimed under Other Professionals, work out the revenue impact at the new caps and where you need to adjust capacity or mix.
• Stop competing on price alone. With 69 per cent of claims at the maximum, the cap is the market rate. Your differentiation has to come from outcomes, responsiveness, specialisation and how clearly you communicate all three.
• Watch the registration question if you do SCCP. The 1 January 2027 unregistered cut changes the maths on registration for some providers.
• Make your marketing carry the load. When price is fixed at the cap, the businesses that win referrals are the ones participants and coordinators can actually find and trust. That is a positioning and visibility problem, covered in our NDIS provider marketing guide.

Frequently asked questions

When do the 2026-27 NDIS price changes take effect?

Most changes apply from 1 July 2026. The one major exception is the 10 per cent reduction for SCCP supports delivered by unregistered providers, which takes effect from 1 January 2027.

Which therapy profession got a price increase?

Only psychology. The psychologist rate rises $20.00 to $252.99 an hour, an 8.6 per cent increase, applied uniformly across all jurisdictions. Every other therapy line is either held or reduced.

Are these prices final or just recommendations?

They are NDIA recommendations from the Annual Pricing Review, reflected in the published NDIS Pricing Schedule for 2026-27, so they govern your price caps from 1 July 2026. Separately, the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026 proposes to let the Minister make a binding pricing determination informed by NDIA advice. The Bill explainer covers that.

How does the new travel pricing work for therapy?

Provider travel is now a separate line item from the direct service, priced at 50 per cent of the service hourly rate. For example, dietitian travel is $89.50, exercise physiologist travel is $81.00 and counsellor travel is $78.08.

Did support coordination and plan management prices change?

No. Support coordination levels held at $80.06, $100.14 and $190.54, and the plan management monthly fee held at $104.45. Both pricing models are flagged for review in the period ahead.

The takeaway

The 2026-27 schedule is less about any single rate and more about a direction of travel: prices benchmarked harder against comparable markets, costs unbundled so each component is priced on its own, and the first signs of registration status affecting what you can charge. The providers who treat this as a positioning exercise rather than a paperwork update will be the ones still growing this time next year. If you want a hand mapping what these changes mean for your specific service mix and how to market around them, book a free strategy call with MMG. You can also browse the full 2026-27 price guide cluster for the deep dive on each change.

Want the personal version of this table? Run your discipline, region and weekly hours through our free NDIS price calculator for 2026-27 and see the revenue impact in seconds.

A closing note on conversion: when most categories are benchmarked down or held flat, the enquiries you already generate have to work harder, because replacing lost margin with raw traffic alone gets expensive fast. A purpose-built NDIS website design lifts the share of visitors who become participants, which is the quietest way to offset pricing pressure. It is usually the first lever we examine as an NDIS marketing agency when a provider brings us a schedule like this one.