Unpacking Recent NDIS Commission Guidance - OTA Expresses Concerns

Occupational Therapy Australia (OTA) has strong concerns that the recent guidance issued by the NDIS commission has unfairly portrayed the occupational therapy profession as unethical and presents both financial and professional risk to the occupational therapists delivering essential NDIS services. OTA today signed a joint letter from AHPA along with other members of the National Assistive Technology Alliance (NATA) to the Commissioner and Minister Shorten that expresses our concerns on the Guidance titled Price differentiation – Guide for Participants. 

Read the Joint Letter.

OTA has also written separately to the Commissioner and Minister Shorten expressing our deep concerns. OTA is not aware of specific evidence or examples of differentiated pricing by occupational therapists in the NDIS market and complaints about occupational therapists to the national regulator remain extremely low for our profession.

OTA believes that the use of an example of an occupational therapist is one that erroneously and unfairly singles out the occupational therapy profession and is flawed given the complexities of service provision. This is particularly distressing given that we know many members go above and beyond for NDIS clients. We know from an OTA member survey we conducted in December 2022 that many occupational therapists who provide services to NDIS participants are actually donating their time to the scheme by not billing activities including time taken to write reports, liaise with the NDIA’s bureaucracy, and work with participants to navigate the scheme and assist with advocacy. Of over 300 OTs who responded to our survey, 71% reported that they have provided unfunded services to NDIS participant, in addition to any billed services. OTA continues to vigorously defend our members and the reputation of the profession to ensure the value of occupational therapy is continued to be recognised and respected by the NDIS.