04-07-2025
Families fear reduced NDIS support as travel subsidies paid to allied health providers cut
Zaiden Dyball's parents had spent years searching for the right therapists.
The five-year-old, who has a rare disability, had recently started taking assisted steps with the help of in-home therapy sessions.
"It makes me so emotional," his mum, Tiana Dyball, said.
"We've battled with finding the right therapists from six months old."
Ms Dyball said they are at risk of losing his "incredible team of therapists" under the price changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Zaiden was born with a genetic condition known as UBE2A Microdeletion, which impacts his development and ability to regulate sensory input.
When he was born in 2020, his parents were told that there were only 12 reported cases worldwide.
"[It] was hard to navigate when we were still learning about it and the doctors were still learning about it," Ms Dyball said.
In the last 18 months, she said with the "right" therapists, Zaiden has been able to sit independently and stand with assistance.
But Ms Dyball is worried Zaiden's progress will slow down with less frequent visits.
From July, the agency that manages the NDIS cut travel subsidies paid to allied health providers by 50 per cent.
Under the new price rules, Ms Dyball said her son, who is only able to have sessions at home, could lose his therapist or have reduced sessions.
"When we go in clinic he gets very worked up. He ends up throwing up and eventually just shutting down, so we have really ineffective therapy sessions," she said.
"Our therapists can only charge a certain amount now, and a lot of our therapists aren't from the local area.
Speech pathologist Maryane Gomez said she is "being forced to reconsider" whether she can continue seeing clients under the reduced travel rates.
The Redlands-based clinician said it's a decision even bigger clinics are considering to remain "financially viable".
Dr Gomez spends up to almost an hour in the car travelling to some clients.
She specialises in diagnosing and treating children with childhood apraxia of speech.
It is a condition where children experience difficulties coordinating their movements to speak, and it requires intensive therapy.
"There's very few clinicians that are properly trained to work with this population," she said.
Dr Gomez conducts around 40 therapy sessions a week across a small caseload.
"I do therapy at school, at their daycare centres to be able to provide the level of intensity that they need to actually improve their communication skills," she said.
Other therapists in Dr Gomez's field have told her they won't be able to continue providing services.
"If we have speech pathologists exiting the NDIS system, that means that our clients are really going to struggle to find the appropriate and quality support," she said.
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) said a comprehensive review of the prices revealed NDIS participants were paying different prices for those therapies compared to what other Australians would pay.
The NDIA spokesperson said the agency had heard from participants that "excessive travel claims" for therapy-related services were draining participants' plans faster than expected.
"For example, a therapist travelling three hours each way to visit a participant for a one-hour session equated to over $1,300 being taken from a participant's plan," the spokesperson said.
They said the updated therapy travel rules would encourage providers to schedule more efficiently and provide clear cost expectations for participants.
"The agency closely monitors the market and continues to work with providers to support the growth of quality supports," the spokesperson said.
People with Disability Australia deputy chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith said there needed to be more community engagement and collaboration to understand the impacts of the new prices.
"It would be a new ask, but it is something that we do need to have considered so that we're not surprised by or having to reset," they said.
"And also, we don't want to continue to lose providers from the market."
They said the recent level of changes to the NDIS had been unlike anything seen in previous years.
"We are experiencing quite a bit of change fatigue," they said.
"There is a risk that each annual pricing review will introduce more changes that potentially we're not always clear how they're going to be part of the wider ecosystem."
Ms Dyball said she hoped the NDIA would reconsider its decision to change the travel fees.
"I feel like this was sprung on us very quickly. As a parent of a person with a disability, it's terrible," she said.
"Therapy travel is important."
