On 22 June 2026, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) released its Annual Pricing Review (APR) for 2026–27 prices. The review covers Disability Support Worker-related supports, therapy, support coordination, plan management, Social Community and Civic Participation, and more. For Allied Health providers delivering therapy supports, the APR delivers a structurally significant set of changes, most notably a reduction in Dietitian and Exercise Physiologist prices, an increase for Psychologist prices, and a change in how therapy claims will be structured from 1 July 2026.

This article focuses on what the APR means for therapy providers, including the methodological choices behind the recommended prices, the new claiming line items, the differentiated pricing question, and the longer-term governance shift signalled by the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026, introduced into Parliament on 14 May 2026.

Therapy supports were accessed by more than 465,600 participants between July and December 2025, with total payments of $2.7 billion. Within that, the 2026–27 APR recommendations land as follows:

• Psychologist prices were recommended to increase to a national maximum of $252.99 per hour, applying uniformly across all jurisdictions. The NDIA benchmarking results show NDIS Psychology prices sit below the median across comparator schemes, with PHI 1 at $250.00, PHI 2 at $252.00, and MBS at $260.00 for a 60-minute session.
• Dietitian prices were recommended to reduce to a national maximum of $178.99 per hour, down from $193.99. The NDIA notes that current Dietitian pricing sits above the reference range by the largest margin of any therapy type according to their benchmarking data — 21.9 per cent above the PHI 2 75th percentile and 24.3 per cent above the MBS 75th percentile.
• Exercise Physiologist prices were recommended to reduce to a national maximum of $161.99 per hour, down from $166.99. The NDIA advised that improved PHI data coverage this year, including transaction data not previously available, supports the reduction.
• Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology prices were maintained at $193.99 and Physiotherapy at $183.99 per hour. The benchmarking analysis reported that NDIS prices for these professionals fall within or close to the reference range and no adjustments were recommended. Speech Pathology, Podiatry, and Audiology are also unchanged.
• Other Professionals (excluding Early Childhood) are recommended to reduce to $156.16 per hour, aligned with counselling and creative therapies, with practitioner identification to be introduced at the point of claim to enable future benchmarking. Early Childhood supports remain at $193.99 per hour.

The most significant methodological feature of this APR, and the most contestable one, is the NDIA's explicit decision to continue benchmarking therapy prices against the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), private health insurance billing data (PHI 1 and PHI 2), and other Commonwealth and state-funded compensation schemes (including DVA, Comcare, SIRA, TAC and the workers' compensation schemes), rather than against the a labour cost framework.

The APR is explicit on this point. It acknowledges that the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) Gender-based undervaluation – priority awards review is examining the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (HPSS Award), which is directly relevant to most allied health professions funded under the NDIS. It then states that, "unlike DSW-related supports… NDIS therapy recommended prices are not directly linked to award wage rates through a cost model," and that any sustained effect of HPSS Award changes "should emerge over time through broader market rates and be captured through the established benchmarking approach in future pricing reviews."

The practical problem with this position is timing. The FWC's gender-based undervaluation decision for the HPSS Award has been handed down with changes flowing from 1 October 2026 — three months after these therapy prices take effect on 1 July 2026. Providers will absorb the wage increases first and wait for the next APR cycle to potentially see them reflected in pricing — if the broader benchmark markets (MBS, PHI) move at all in response.

The previous Government and the prior Aged Care reform process signalled that the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) would, over time, assume responsibility for NDIS pricing in the same way it now does for Support at Home and residential aged care. The 2026–27 APR contains no such signal. The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026, introduced into Parliament on 14 May 2026, proposes to give the Minister for the NDIS the power to make a pricing determination, with the NDIA providing the advice. The APR is positioned as the input to that advice.

In other words, the NDIA continues to be the body responsible for pricing analysis and recommendations, and the Minister becomes the ultimate decision-maker, with the APR functioning as the evidentiary brief. There is no indication in this document that IHACPA will take over therapy pricing in the near term. That has implications for the methodological argument above: the body benchmarking NDIS prices is not the same body benchmarking aged care prices, and the methodological frameworks are diverging rather than converging.

Alongside the price recommendations, the APR introduces a significant restructure of therapy claims. From 1 July 2026, the Pricing Schedule has separate line items for:

• Direct service
• Cancellation
• Non-Face-to-Face
• NDIA Requested Reports
• Telehealth

The intent of the restructure, as stated in the APR, is to "improve transparency and accuracy in claiming, and support more consistent claiming practices across providers." The operational consequence for practices is that the line item architecture will be more granular than at any point in the Scheme's history. This points towards further pricing reform in these areas in the future.

The APR applies differentiated pricing to one support category in this review, Social, Community and Civic Participation (SCCP), where unregistered providers face a 10 per cent price reduction from 1 January 2027 and registered providers maintain their prices. Therapy is not in scope for differentiated pricing in this APR.

However, the differentiated pricing chapter (Chapter 5) sets out the framework the NDIA will apply to subsequent reviews, and registration status, qualification level and complexity are all explicitly contemplated. Therapy providers should treat the SCCP differentiation as the proof of concept, with further extension to other support categories — potentially including therapy — being considered through the 3-Year Pricing Workplan.

The 2026–27 APR moves therapy pricing in three structurally different directions at once: Psychology up, Dietetics and EP down, OT and Physio flat, and the entire claiming line item structure rebuilt. For a multi-disciplinary practice delivering across these professions, the net impact varies materially by service mix. A practice weighted toward Psychology benefits; one weighted toward Dietetics and EP is squeezed; one weighted toward OT and Physio is operationally exposed to indexation pressure without compensating revenue movement, particularly once the HPSS Award outcomes flow through from 1 October 2026.

With pricing remaining down or flat across most disciplines, efficiency is the only remaining lever for practice health. Capturing every legitimate billable activity, including the new separate line items for provider travel, non-face-to-face support provision, and NDIA-requested reports, is no longer a nice-to-have. It is the difference between margin compression and margin collapse.

splose is built around exactly this operational requirement. From day one of the new line items taking effect on 1 July 2026, splose provides:

• Automated billing across line items per service type: splose already separates direct service delivery, non-face-to-face support activities and provider travel into their respective line items at the point of claim.
• NDIS bulk upload with PACE: multiple claims across different line items can be submitted to the NDIS provider portal in a single workflow, maintaining cash flow as the claim architecture becomes more granular.
• Performance reporting by line item, by funder, and by clinician: practice owners can see exactly where revenue is being captured and where it is being left on the table, supporting both operational decision-making now and into the future.

The 2026–27 APR delivers concrete therapy pricing changes for 1 July 2026 and a substantially rebuilt claiming line item structure. It also leaves the larger questions open: whether benchmarking against MBS and PHI is the right anchor for an allied health workforce paid under the HPSS Award; whether the differentiated pricing framework will extend to therapy in future reviews; and whether the pricing review function will remain with the NDIA or eventually shift to IHACPA.

For Allied Health practices, the response is operational before it is strategic. From 1 July 2026, all billing activity needs to land with the correct line item, every time to remain compliant. 

About the author: Scott Lynch is the Founder and Managing Director of Community Therapy, a leading multi-disciplinary Allied Health practice. Physiotherapist by background, Scott combines his deep clinical knowledge with a passion for community-based care, overseeing a diverse team of health professionals dedicated to supporting and empowering their clients to live enriched lives.