NDIS Providers: Registered vs Unregistered and their Benefits

As soon as you enrol yourself or your family member in NDIS, you will want to look for a service provider. An NDIS service provider is a person or organisation that helps disabled members and their families through the NDIS plan. This includes understanding the terms of this plan and strategising funding. 

While searching, you will come across both registered and unregistered NDIS providers. To know the difference between them and their benefits, read till the end. 

What Is the Difference Between Registered and Unregistered Providers?

Registered NDIS providers are persons or organisations registered under the NDIS Commission under Section 73E of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act, 2013. National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) approves them to offer service to NDIS members and their families. A registered provider offers the following services to the members:

• Plan Management

• Speciality Disability Act (SDA)

• Supported Independent Living (SIL)

• Services that include behaviour management plans and behavioural support. 

Unregistered providers are not registered under NDIA and will not be able to directly work with NDIA-managed participants. However, they can offer a range of products and services provided they follow the NDIS Code of Conduct.

It would be wrong to consider that all unregistered NDIS service providers have poor management skills. But with registration, NDIS providers can tap into diverse fields of services and reach more people than in the unregistered stage. Here are a few services that unregistered NDIS providers can offer:

• Occupation therapist or physiotherapist

• Consumables

• House cleaning

• Gardening

If a person is an agency-managed member of NDIS, he/she cannot opt for unregistered providers. This is because NDIA only funds invoices of registered services. This is also another reason for the high demand for registered services over unregistered ones. 

A self-managed individual is free to choose from registered or unregistered services. However, they would have to look after and manage the invoices themselves. Individuals with plan management NDIS can also choose from registered or unregistered providers. They have plan managers to take care of all their invoices and records.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Registered Providers?

Following are the benefits of choosing a registered NDIS provider. 

• Seamless and easy-to-avail of financing with thorough documentation

• Considered more trustworthy than unregistered ones

• Cashflow is quicker as everything is managed through the NDIS portal

• All NDIS-managed participants can gain access to a registered provider

• Owing to strict NDIS rules, registered services provide high-quality services

Here are the drawbacks of a registered NDIS provider.

• Very strict rules

• More paperwork compare to other options

What Are the Pros and Cons of Unregistered NDIS Providers?

Here are some noteworthy benefits of unregistered providers.

• Starting up a service is easy and quick

• Since they do not follow NDIA price guidelines, they can offer more services

• Participants can directly work with them and build relationships

• No licensing or audit fee is involved

Following are a few drawbacks of choosing unregistered services. 

• Not much reach as most people consider them less reliable than registered services

• Some providers may provide lower-quality service or cheat individuals financially as there are no auditing or documentation requirements for them

• They do not have access to the NDIA list which makes it tough for unregistered services to grow their business. 

To conclude, although unregistered NDIS providers are not accountable to NDIA, their actions cannot go without consequences. They must abide by the NDIS Code of Conduct and their employees must undergo an NDIS screening check for all employees. This makes them relatively safe options but most people opt for registered providers only.