Many aged care providers provide support services to participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Providers can be registered or unregistered, and each option has its advantages and disadvantages. So which option is best for your organisation? 

Aged care providers and the NDIS

Aged care providers provide NDIS support services to two broad categories of consumer:

1. Consumers under 65 years of age who are living with disabilities.  These consumers do not yet qualify to receive aged care services under the aged care scheme, and the organisation provides NDIS support services to the consumer in its capacity as an NDIS provider.

2. Consumers 65 years or older who are “dual participants” – i.e. participants in both the NDIS and the aged care scheme.  These consumers receive aged care services under the aged care legislation and also qualify to receive NDIS services under their NDIS plan. Depending on their situation, these services may be provided by the same organisation that provides the aged care services, another NDIS provider, or both.

Your organisation can choose to be a registered NDIS provider or an unregistered NDIS provider.  The best decision for your organisation depends broadly on its resources, its long term strategy and the consumers it wishes to support. The former two factors are relevant because it takes considerable time and resources to become registered and meet the more demanding reporting and compliance obligations of registered NDIS providers under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act (NDIS Act) and its associated Rules.  The latter factor is relevant because certain consumers can only receive services from registered NDIS providers.

Which services can only be provided by registered NDIS providers?

The NDIS Act and associated Rules operate so that an aged care provider must be a registered NDIS provider:

1. if the organisation delivers specialist disability accommodation to NDIS participants;

2. if the organisation develops behaviour support plans to NDIS participants;

3. to provide services to an NDIS participant if there is a reasonable likelihood of a need to use restrictive practices (as that term is defined in the NDIS legislation) in the course of providing those services; or

4. to provide services to an NDIS participant whose plan funding is managed by the National Disability Insurance Agency.

What are the costs of registration?

The NDIS registration application process can take significant time, money and effort to complete. In particular, the costs of undertaking a quality audit (a requirement for registration) can be substantial and will vary depending on the types of NDIS services your organisation provides or intends to provide. Once registered, your organisation must also regularly renew the registration, requiring further quality audits and other administrative costs to complete.

Due to these costs and administrative processes, some organisations may form the view that they simply cannot afford to become registered NDIS providers. If this is the case, and your organisation provides services to NDIS participants, it is important that your organisation take all appropriate precautions to ensure that it does not provide services that can only be provided by a registered NDIS provider.

What are the strategic benefits of registration?

There are many potential benefits to becoming registered, including:

1. Potential new / increased revenue streams, by being able to provide a broader scope of services to a broader scope of potential customers.

2. Being able to provide a more comprehensive service offering to dual participants.

3. Being able to provide greater continuity of care for dual participants. This is particularly relevant to organisations who provide residential aged care services - unregistered NDIS providers may face challenges if a dual participant’s health or care needs change and a risk of restrictive practice use develops particularly given the security of tenure rights under the aged care legislation.

4. Branding and reputation, given the more comprehensive compliance and reporting obligations of registered NDIS providers.  

5. Competitive advantage against unregistered NDIS providers.

Your organisation should consider these and any other potential benefits by reference to the long term goals of the organisation. If they align, and if the organisation can position itself so as to take full advantage of these benefits, your organisation may decide that it should become a registered NDIS provider.

When considering these benefits, it is important to take into account the more strict statutory obligations of registered NDIS providers and what adjustments to the organisation’s policies, procedures, systems, training and reporting processes will be required prior to registration.

When to act

If your organisation wants to become registered to ensure that it can continue to provide services to consumers where restrictive practices may be involved, it is important to act quickly. The registration process is time consuming, and the statutory grace period in relation to these activities expires on 30 November 2020. To find out more about this statutory grace period and what it means for your organisation, click here.

Need help?

We are multi-award-winning experts in aged care and health law and regularly advise our clients in relation to aged care and NDIS related matters. If you wish to discuss any of the above matters in more detail or require other assistance please do not hesitate to call us on 02 9199 4563. 

This blog post does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. It is a general commentary on matters that may be of interest to you. Formal legal or other professional advice should be sought before acting or relying on any matter arising from this communication.