Well folks... here we go again.
Just when everyone had recovered and made adjustments to their services and support with the release of a new pricing guide in July and (almost unreadably small) support catalogue which removed and made changes to the standard list of services which has operated for some time now...
....along comes a new pricing guide 3 months after the last! *OMG. Tired anyone?!*
Its not all bad news though... the long awaited 're-entry' of broader nursing services and allied health supports is finally available.
What does this mean?
A few things.
Firstly participants can access a range of nurse-lead services or podiatry if this is something they need.
Secondly, the supports are temporarily available from either 'Improved Daily Living' funds or 'Core' funds. This will provide great flexibility in case people need them now and don't have sufficient IDL funds.
Do I need a plan review?
No. You can access these new services from 1 Oct 2019 under your core funds as the NDIA has added the new codes already. However, participants may need to think about any impact this might have on other paid supports for activities of daily living and community participation (as well as transport or travel within these). More importantly, this change means people needing the new services can get the help and additional skilled services they may need NOW. For example: continence help or training of support workers to meet their requirements!
Like other services under a core or therapy budget, nursing (in particular) now includes tiering with enrolled nurses for the first time included as a service option as well as new categories for higher qualified nursing personnel like clinical nurse, clinical nurse consultant and nurse practitioner. Along with these there are various prices and people should pay close attention to these. Nurses can also charge travel, cancellation fees - less than 48 hours notice, for progress reports and indirect activities (like keeping clinical notes). This is likely to have some impact under a participant's core budget if these issues are not considered up-front.
NOTE: When a person's next plan review occurs, and if they have utilised these health-related and allied services (from your core budget) and need them into the future, they will be added to the IDL funds budget of the NEXT plan instead.
Our thoughts
Its great to see the NDIA is finally listening about 'actual' health-related support needs and learning from its past mistakes where people were essentially 'locked-out' of accessing new support types until their plan review. However, it does also beg the question of why past poor implementations could not have been managed a similar way? On this last we guess no one will ever know. Lets just hope new options follow a similar... practical... path?!
Lets also hope nurses in particular can now see a clearer path to register as providers too and enter the market. There are a few providers (like SchemeWise) that offer some services but nowhere near enough nurses are present in the disability sector to support everyone who needs one!
Participants can find the new support listings in the support catalogue under 'Assist Daily Life' and 'Improved Daily Living - Therapies.'
