White Paper: The Quality Quandary - what next for quality NDIS Registered Therapy Providers

This paper draws on the Ability Roundtable’s robust industry data to highlight the limitations of the current therapy pricing approach, and the impacts of the 2025-26 Annual Pricing Review decisions on the quality registered therapy provider market.

The impact of the APR decision on the quality registered therapy provider is dire, and this threatens the viability of a crucial part of the provider market that serves many of the most complex clients with the highest needs. Ability Roundtable analysis of member data projects a median loss of -24.6% for the 2025-26 financial year.

The financial performance of the quality registered therapy market is driven by the entrenched flaws in the pricing methodology for quality therapy supports, which includes:

• Therapy pricing decisions based on inappropriate price comparisons and incomplete market data.

• NDIS therapy pricing is driving bifurcation in the market. An unintended consequence of squeezing the registered provider sector will be the growth in unregistered providers.

• Average therapy unit operating costs are at least 15% higher than the NDIS price limit for quality registered providers, as demonstrated through Ability Roundtable bottom-up Cost Model using industry informed data.

• Specialised and evidence-based therapy supports to complex participants costs more.

• Larger, quality registered providers create a positive economic externality through additional unfunded activities, such as graduate training in best practice therapeutic supports for people with disability and the professionalisation of the disability sector.

Ability Roundtable -The Quality Quandry - What next for quality registered therapy provide.

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