We know pricing changes can be a lot to take in, especially when they involve your supports and NDIS plan. So, we’ve created this article to explain what’s changing, when it’s happening, and why we’ve made the decision to update how we structure and charge for our therapy services.
There are two key change dates to know:
- 1 July 2025: New NDIS-mandated pricing takes effect for all providers nationally
- 21 July 2025: Back to Basics Health Group’s service model changes begin
Our goal is to keep you informed, supported and confident in the care you receive.
What’s Changing and When
From 1 July 2025: NDIS-Mandated Pricing Changes
These are updates the NDIA has made to the national price guide for the 2025–26 year, and they apply to all providers, not just us.
What’s changing:
- The hourly rate for Behaviour Support will increase by $10, to $232.99/hr
- The travel labour charge (what we can claim for time spent driving to your appointment) will be reduced to 50% of the therapist’s hourly rate, capped at 30 minutes each way.
Example:
Previously, if a Behaviour Support practitioner travelled 20 minutes to your home, the travel time was billed at 100% of the hourly rate. Now, it will be billed at 50% of that rate, meaning providers recover less for the same distance travelled.
These changes are intended to bring consistency to the way providers charge for travel. However, they significantly affect mobile providers like us who travel frequently to clients across the region.
From 14 July 2025: Back to Basics Service Model Updates
We’re also making some important updates to how we structure our services and charge for travel. These changes are necessary to ensure we can continue delivering mobile therapy that is sustainable, high quality, and tailored to your needs.
1. Appointments will increase from 60 to 70 minutes
This change better reflects the full scope of work involved in delivering therapy. The additional 10 minutes will cover activities that take place outside the session, such as:
- Communicating and collaborating with families, teachers, support workers, support coordinators, other therapists and healthcare workers
- Writing progress notes, NDIS reports, or goal updates after a session
- Planning and preparing therapy activities or visual supports before a session.
The service cost for the new 70 min appointments are as follows:
- Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology, Social Work and Developmental Education appointments will be $226.32 per 70 minute session.
- Behaviour Support appointments will be $271.82 per 70 minute session.
The face to face appointment time will remain at 45 mins.
Example:
If a speech therapist works with your child in-school, they may spend time coordinating with the teacher, updating the support plan, and documenting outcomes — all of which are critical to success, but often not billable under the 60-minute format.
2. Travel labour time will be calculated from our Rowville office
Travel time will be charged in six-minute increments based on how far your appointment is from our registered business location. And as traffic congestion across Melbourne has significantly increased in recent years, we’ve also reviewed and updated our estimated travel times to each suburb to ensure accuracy and fairness.
Example:
If a therapist travels 18 minutes from our Rowville office, you’ll be charged for 18 minutes at 50% of the hourly rate. For appointments located more than 30 minutes away, we may also charge return travel.
3. New travel vehicle fee of $0.99/km
In line with the NDIS price guide, we’ll now apply a $0.99/km fee for the distance travelled from our registered office in Rowville to your appointment. For distances over 25km we may also charge this fee for return travel.
This fee helps cover fuel, insurance, maintenance, and wear and tear on our vehicles — costs we’ve absorbed for many years.
Example:
If your therapist drives 12km to your home, the travel cost would be 12 x $0.99 = $11.88, billed in addition to travel labour time.
For our full price list, check out the Fees + Charges Fact Sheet.
Why We’re Making These Changes
We’ve always done our best to keep pricing fair, and for many years we’ve absorbed travel, preparation and documentation costs to avoid passing them on to families. But the financial pressure on providers, especially mobile services like ours, has grown beyond what we can manage alone.
The Financial Reality for Service Providers
Since 2019, the therapy hourly rate under the NDIS has remained frozen at $193.99. During the same period, the costs of delivering quality care have continued to rise:
- Inflation has increased by 24.6%
- Wages for staff have grown by 22%
- Electricity and rent have surged by over 30%
- Housing costs impacting both clients and providers have jumped by 39%
- And the cost of business insurance has increased by 30% in just the last year.
Despite these escalating expenses, funding has not kept pace. This has made it increasingly difficult for Allied Health practices to remain sustainable while continuing to provide high-quality, personalised support.
The financial strain on Allied Health service providers is becoming increasingly evident:
- 34% of Allied Health service providers reported a loss in the 2022-2023 financial year
- 60% of Occupational Therapy practices expected to report a loss or only break even in the 2023-2024 financial year
- 8% of occupational therapists exited the NDIS system entirely over the past 12 months, leaving more than 7,000 participants without their therapist.
- Only around 1/3 of the hours worked by our team are billable, the other 2/3 of our time is taken up with admin, accounting and payroll, invoicing and reconciliation, onboarding and wait list management, appointment management, supervision and professional development, compliance and auditing, etc.
- We also spend a lot of time on activities that we could charge for, but haven’t up until now – like short phone calls to families or other members of your care team, collaborating with other therapists and medical professionals, reading and responding to emails, therapy planning and preparation, researching / evidence-based practice.
These figures highlight the urgent need for funding that reflects the real cost of delivering care, especially for mobile services that absorb additional overheads like travel, planning, and coordination.
The Impact of NDIS Travel Time Charge Reductions
The recent NDIS change reducing travel labour charges to 50% of the hourly rate has made it significantly more costly for providers like us to continue delivering mobile services. With travel time capped at 30 minutes and road congestion increasing across Melbourne, our therapists are spending more time in transit, often with less ability to recover the cost.
As a result, many small mobile providers have made the difficult decision to stop travelling more than 20 minutes from their base. But we know how important it is for you to receive support in places that matter, whether that’s your home, school, day program, or other locations in the community.
To continue offering this flexibility while remaining sustainable, we’ve had to update our service model. These changes will allow us to keep delivering high-quality therapy where you need it most.
The Growing Burden of NDIS Compliance
Over the past several years, NDIS compliance requirements have grown significantly — and so has the time, effort, and cost involved in meeting them. Therapists are now expected to attend care team meetings, complete increasingly detailed reports, and respond to complex plan reviews. Much of this essential work has historically gone unpaid.
Behind the scenes, every update to the NDIS framework, no matter how small, requires careful review, adjustments to internal systems and processes, additional training, and clear communication with both clients and support teams. Recent changes, such as those required under Section 33 of the NDIS Act, have introduced stricter planning and documentation standards that demand even more practitioner and administrative time.
While these reforms aim to improve the scheme, they have created a substantial and ongoing administrative burden. The cost of compliance, including pricing accuracy, reporting obligations, workforce planning, and data security, continues to rise, and the NDIA’s multi-year reform roadmap indicates this pressure will only increase.
We’ve absorbed these costs for as long as possible, but it is no longer sustainable to do so without compromising service quality. Updating our pricing and service model is a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering high-quality therapy, supporting our clinicians, and staying strong for the clients and families who rely on us.
These changes will allow us to:
- Continue delivering meaningful, consistent support
- Support our team to provide the care you deserve
- Keep offering mobile therapy across Greater Melbourne
We also want to assure you that we’ve worked closely with our Parent Advisory Group to shape and evaluate the updates we’re making. Their insights and lived experience have played an important role in informing our approach. They’ve helped us identify what matters most to families, and they’re fully supportive of these changes as necessary steps to protect service continuity, quality, and fairness for everyone.
What We’re Not Charging For
We also want you to know what we won’t be charging for, even though we’re allowed to under the NDIS:
- Return travel for appointments 30 mins or less away from our registered office in Rowville
- Appointment session cancellation fees with more than 48 hours’ notice
NDIS Section 33 Funding Period Changes
As part of recent NDIS reforms, the NDIA has introduced new requirements under Section 33 of the NDIS Act. These changes place a greater emphasis on accountability and documentation, including new planning, reporting and evidence standards for service providers.
In addition, the NDIS is introducing “funding periods” to encourage improved financial oversight and alignment of support delivery with participant outcomes. These changes require us to track and report more accurately on how, when, and why supports are delivered.
While these reforms are aimed at improving the NDIS, they also increase the amount of time and resources needed behind the scenes to remain compliant. You can learn more about these changes and what they mean for you in our dedicated fact sheet: [Insert link]
What Happens Next
- From 1 July 2025, NDIS-mandated pricing changes apply to invoices
- By 30 June 2025, you’ll receive your updated Service Agreement and Schedule
- You’ll have until 5pm on Sunday 13th July to review, ask questions, and return the agreement ahead of the 21 July service model changes
For our full price list, check out the Fees + Charges Fact Sheet.
If you need help understanding how these changes affect you, please send us an email at info@backtobasicshealthgroup.com.au or call us on 03 9763 7613
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