The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is appalled by the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) decision to lower price limits for physiotherapy supports, which ignores five years of price freezes and ongoing pressures of rising operational costs.

This decision will diminish access to critical care for many of Australia’s most vulnerable people, creating unsustainable pressure on physiotherapists providing support under the NDIS.

APA National President Dr Rik Dawson said that the outcome of the Annual NDIS Pricing Review 2025-2026 will make working within the scheme untenable for many physiotherapists and it will ultimately be NDIS participants who suffer the consequences.  

‘The sad reality is that these cuts jeopardise safe and effective care for participants by putting further strain on a sector already under significant pressure,’ said Dr Dawson.

‘The intention of the scheme is to enable person-centred supports, choice and control and to meet the unique and complex needs of people living with disability. Without fair and sustainable pricing, the sector will lose the highly skilled clinicians needed to deliver this care.’

‘This decision has ignored industry voices and not considered the impact it will have on the market. This only serves to shift costs to other services within our health sector, putting NDIS participants at risk of ending up in emergency departments, experiencing long wait times and reduced availability of experienced clinicians, particularly in regional and rural areas.’

‘Physiotherapy isn’t a simple “cost to cut.” It’s an investment in preventing functional decline. Keeping people mobile keeps them out of hospital and supporting their independence reduces the need for high-cost care in the longer term.’

Over the past six years, physiotherapists working within the scheme have endured multiple price freezes while simultaneously battling rising operational costs.

‘Furthermore, the comparison of NDIS pricing to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Private Health Insurance (PHI) benchmarks fails to recognise that NDIS participants often present with complex, chronic and multi-faceted needs that require longer consultations, greater care coordination, multidisciplinary collaboration and tailored, goal-directed interventions. Benchmarking pricing against the MBS, which is designed for shorter, episodic care, underestimates the time, expertise and clinical responsibility required to deliver high-quality, person-centred support under the NDIS.’

‘The result is that, prior to today’s decision, almost one third (31%) of APA members working within the scheme had already considering leaving the sector due to financial stress—today’s decision is certain to increase these departures,’ said Dr Dawson. 

The APA is working with other allied health organisation around Australia to implore the government to reconsider this decision and avoid creating a workforce crisis that will severely impact the availability of services to NDIS participants.  

The APA urges the NDIA to reverse this decision and engage in meaningful consultation.