Submitted to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

Dietitians Australia supports reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to improve the health and wellbeing of people with disability.

We advocate for the rights of people with disability to access appropriate nutrition supports and Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) services to meet their physical, mental and social needs.

Appropriate pricing is essential to maintain the growth and sustainability of the dietetics workforce and to ensure that NDIS participants receive an appropriate level of support to meet their needs.

Our submission gives the recommendations:

• Pricing limits for nutrition and dietetic supports should be indexed in line with the annual Consumer Price Index increase
• Pricing for group services should be increased and higher than individual supports. The current rate does not account for the increased complexity and time associated with running group sessions
• Maintain non-face-to-face billing arrangements. Dietitians spend a comparatively high proportion of time doing essential non-face-to-face activities such as developing mealtime management plans. Changes to these arrangements will disproportionately impact access to dietetic services.
• NDIS to cover cost of delivering services in rural, regional and remote locations including professional time, vehicle costs and fuel costs. Currently dietitians subsidise these services

For more, download our full submission.