The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is demanding the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) immediately halt the implementation of its 2025-26 Annual Pricing Review – before it causes irreversible harm to a sector on the brink of collapse.  

The decision to cut price limits and travel expenses for physiotherapists and other allied health professionals is not only shortsighted, it’s neglectful. This price guide is based on flawed data and has been developed without meaningful consultation with the very professionals who deliver this care. The result is a price guide that is completely detached from the reality of service delivery.  

APA National President Dr Rik Dawson said that the NDIA’s actions are rushed, deeply flawed and fly in the face of the NDIS’s founding purpose.

‘The NDIS was built to ensure that Australians living with disability have access to the unique and complex care that they need to thrive,’ Dr Dawson said.  

‘But today, that vision is under threat. For the past five years, we’ve watched the founding tenets of the NDIS erode, with the NDIA ignoring the growing shortfall between actual costs and their price guide. This decision represents a dangerous disconnect between government policy and on-the-ground expertise. It disregards our data, our warnings, and most importantly, the needs of the people it was designed to serve.’

‘Instead of addressing five years of price stagnation, the NDIA has doubled down on an extraordinarily short-sighted decision - a cost-cutting exercise disguised as reform, targeting a highly qualified profession that accounts for around 1.3 per cent of the overall NDIS budget,’ he said.

Independent financial modelling from the Ability Roundtable, which draws on data from registered therapy providers responsible for nearly one in five NDIS therapy hours, shows the median financial impact of these pricing changes would result in financial losses of -24.6 per cent for providers.

‘This is not speculation, this is real data,’ Dr Dawson said. ‘We are staring down the barrel of mass provider exits and market failure within weeks. That’s what the modelling tells us. These are quality, registered therapy providers already operating on thin margins after five years without indexation, and now they’re being hit with a pricing cut and a halving of travel reimbursement with no warning and two weeks' notice. It’s not just unsustainable, it’s reckless.’

‘Let’s be clear: these changes will not save money. They will shift costs downstream and increase the cost of care to Australia’s broader healthcare system, as the functional mobility of NDIS participants deteriorates from diminished access to physiotherapy.’  

‘If the NDIA ignores industry warnings and proceeds with the implementation of these changes on July 1, the cascade effect will be almost immediate with physiotherapists forced to leave the NDIS. Participants will have no choice but to turn to overburdened hospitals who are left to deal with an influx of injuries, including falls, chest infections, pressure sores, declining condition and unnecessary surgeries which could have been prevented through physiotherapy,’ Dr Dawson said.

‘The outrage is widespread,’ Dr Dawson said. ‘A petition calling for the NDIA to reverse this decision and urgently index the price guides for allied health services has already attracted over 23,000 signatures in just a few short days. That includes participants, carers, clinicians and everyday Australians who recognise just how dangerous these cuts are.’

The APA strongly urges the NDIA to stop, consult with the highly qualified health professions who work with NDIS participants every day, and fix this before more damage is done. The people who rely on the NDIS - and the professionals who make it work - deserve better. 

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The APA's petition is available via the website. Please sign today.