Key Takeaways
- For 2026-27 the NDIA split the single NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL) into two documents: a Pricing Schedule (prices) and a Support Catalogue (item numbers and claim types), both effective 1 July 2026.
- The full PAPL rules document, which sets out the claiming, provider travel, short-notice cancellation and non-face-to-face provisions, has not been republished for 2026-27 (as at 18 July 2026). The 2025-26 PAPL remains the only complete rules reference on the NDIA pricing page.
- The Support Catalogue was published around 1 July and updated to version 1.1 in mid-July 2026, adding the missing SIL provider travel item (01_799_0138_1_1) and renumbering three allied health modifier items effective 3 July 2026.
- Allied health and therapy now bill through separate modifier items identified by a suffix: _CA (cancellation), _NF (non-face-to-face), _PT (provider travel), _RR (NDIA requested reports) and _TH (telehealth). The Agency validates each as a Direct Service, and the _PT travel items are priced at exactly 50% of the full rate.
- The NDIA now describes the Pricing Schedule as guidance on "appropriate and reasonable maximum prices", ahead of a proposed Ministerial pricing-determination power in the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026, which is not yet law.
- A payment that does not meet the claiming rules can be recovered as a debt, so claiming against an unconfirmed rule set carries real financial risk.
- Until the 2026-27 rules document lands, apply the 2025-26 PAPL claiming rules as the working reference, document the basis for each travel, non-face-to-face and cancellation claim, and watch the NDIA pricing-updates page.
As at 18 July 2026, NDIS providers can claim 2026-27 prices and use the new Support Catalogue item numbers, but the NDIA has not republished the PAPL rules document that governs how provider travel, non-face-to-face time, short-notice cancellations and requested reports are claimed. Until it does, the 2025-26 claiming rules remain the working reference, and every claim built on an assumption carries a clawback risk.
What did the NDIA actually publish for 2026-27?
The NDIA released its Annual Pricing Review (APR) report on 23 June 2026 and, with it, changed the structure of its pricing documents. For years, providers worked from a single document, the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL), which combined the price tables and the narrative rules for how each support could be claimed. For 2026-27 the NDIA broke that into parts.
What is published and in force from 1 July 2026 is the Pricing Schedule, which the NDIA pricing arrangements page describes as setting out "the support item number, support item name, the unit, and the national, remote and very remote recommended maximum prices for each support item". Alongside it sits the Support Catalogue, the machine-readable list of every support item and its claim type, which is what practice management and claiming software loads. The 2026-27 disability support worker cost model is also published. So the prices and the item numbers are settled: you know what each support is worth and which item to select.
The reframe that matters is what the Pricing Schedule is not. It is prices and items. It is not the rulebook.
What is still missing, and why it matters
The Pricing Schedule and the Support Catalogue tell you the price of a support and the code to claim it against. They do not tell you the rules for claiming it: how much provider travel you may claim and up to what limit, when and how much non-face-to-face time is claimable, how a short-notice cancellation is charged, and the conditions attached to an NDIA-requested report. Those provisions lived in the narrative body of the old PAPL, and for 2026-27 that document has not been reissued.
This is not a rumour. The NDIA pricing arrangements page, current as at 3 July 2026, lists only the 2025-26 PAPL under "Other documents and addendums". Sector software providers tracking the release confirm the same position: as of mid-July they were "continuing to monitor for the full Pricing Arrangements (PAPL) rules document, which sets out the claiming, travel, cancellation and non-face-to-face provisions". Our own NDIS Pricing 2026-27 guide flagged the missing rules when the prices first landed in June, and six weeks later they are still outstanding.
The consequence is practical. Providers of disability support work, community nursing and support coordination deliver services every day that involve travel, phone and email contact, and cancellations. They now have prices and item numbers for those activities, but the document that says how the activities may be claimed has not been confirmed for the current financial year. You are claiming into a rule set that has not been formally reissued.
What is published versus what is missing for 2026-27
| 2026-27 document | Status as at 18 July 2026 | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Schedule | Published, effective 1 July 2026 | Item number, name, unit, and national, remote and very remote maximum prices |
| Support Catalogue | Published about 1 July, updated to v1.1 mid-July | The item list and each item's claim type (what software loads) |
| Annual Pricing Review report | Published 23 June 2026 | The NDIA's rationale for the price outcomes |
| Disability support worker cost model 2026-27 | Published, effective 1 July 2026 | The cost basis behind support-worker prices |
| Full PAPL rules document (claiming provisions) | Not republished | Provider travel, non-face-to-face, short-notice cancellation and requested-report rules |
The top four rows are settled. The bottom row is the gap, and it is the one that decides whether a travel or non-face-to-face claim is correct.
How do the new allied health modifier items work?
For allied health and therapy, the 2026-27 Support Catalogue does answer part of the question, because it builds the claiming distinction into the item numbers themselves. Instead of one therapy item, each discipline now carries a family of items distinguished by a suffix. The Agency validates each as a Direct Service, meaning the item number carries the meaning and no separate claim type is expected on the line.
| Suffix | What it claims | Note |
|---|---|---|
| (no suffix) | Direct, face-to-face service | The standard hourly item |
| _CA | Short-notice cancellation | Item exports as a Direct Service; the cancellation reason is recorded internally |
| _NF | Non-face-to-face activity | Clinically required work away from the participant |
| _PT | Provider travel | Priced at exactly 50% of the full hourly rate, so no separate reduction is applied |
| _RR | NDIA requested report | Report writing the NDIA specifically asks for |
| _TH | Telehealth | A new telehealth claim type, claimable in its own right |
This is why an allied health practice can bill fairly confidently for 2026-27: the item structure is defined, and the rules for non-face-to-face and travel billing still describe the underlying logic. The exposure is greater for disability support work, nursing and support coordination, where the claiming activities exist but the governing provisions sit in the PAPL rules document that has not been reissued.
Which claiming rules apply while the PAPL is missing?
Nothing in the NDIA's 1 July release repealed the claiming rules. The rules were removed from a republished 2026-27 document only because that document does not yet exist, not because the provisions were abolished. In practice, that means the 2025-26 PAPL remains the working reference for provider travel limits, non-face-to-face conditions, short-notice cancellation charging and requested reports, and the NDIA still hosts it on the pricing arrangements page for exactly that reason.
Treat this as the interim position, not a permanent one. The safe reading is: apply the 2025-26 claiming rules, price the claim at the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule rate, and keep a note of the basis for anything involving travel, non-face-to-face time or a cancellation. If the NDIA republishes a 2026-27 rules document and it narrows a provision, you want to be able to show that your claims followed the last-issued rules at the time you made them.
What can go wrong: the claiming risk
The reason this is worth taking seriously is that NDIS payments are not final when they hit your account. Under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, a payment a provider was not entitled to can be recovered as a debt to the Commonwealth, and the NDIA runs payment assurance and post-payment review programs that check claims after the money has moved. A provider that guesses generously on travel or non-face-to-face time, and is later found to have claimed outside the rules, does not just lose the future claim. It can be asked to repay what it has already banked.
That is the real cost of an unconfirmed rule set. The prices are certain, so the temptation is to treat the whole claim as certain, but the conditions attached to travel, non-face-to-face and cancellations are the part still in flux. This also arrives in the same window as the broader NDIS integrity reforms: the NDIS Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Act 2026 lifted civil penalties for serious contraventions and gave the Commission new powers, so the environment for careless claiming is less forgiving than it was a year ago.
What NDIS providers should do now
- Identify your exposure. List the supports you deliver that involve provider travel, non-face-to-face time, short-notice cancellations or NDIA-requested reports. These are the claims most affected by the missing rules document.
- Adopt the 2025-26 PAPL as your interim rulebook. Download it from the NDIA pricing arrangements page and use its travel, non-face-to-face and cancellation provisions until a 2026-27 version is published.
- Reprice, do not re-rule. Apply the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule rates, including the 50% provider travel items, but keep the 2025-26 conditions for how much and when you can claim.
- Load the v1.1 Support Catalogue. Confirm your software is on the mid-July update so the allied health modifier items, the telehealth claim type and the SIL provider travel item are available and mapped to the correct claim type.
- Document the basis of borderline claims. For any travel or non-face-to-face claim, record the rule you relied on and why, so the claim is defensible if it is later reviewed.
- Watch the NDIA pricing-updates page. The pricing updates page is where a republished rules document or an addendum will appear. When it lands, re-check any assumptions you made in the interim.
- Update service agreements only with participant agreement. Where the 2026-27 price changes an amount quoted in a current service agreement, you must discuss it and the participant must agree before you charge the new rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the NDIS published its 2026-27 claiming rules?
Not the full rules document. As at 18 July 2026 the NDIA has published the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule (prices) and the Support Catalogue (item numbers and claim types), both effective 1 July 2026, but it has not republished the Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits rules document that sets out the provider travel, non-face-to-face, short-notice cancellation and NDIA-requested-report provisions.
What rules apply to NDIS claiming while the PAPL is missing?
The 2025-26 PAPL remains the working reference. The claiming provisions were not repealed; they were simply not reissued in a 2026-27 document. The NDIA still hosts the 2025-26 PAPL on its pricing arrangements page, so the safe interim approach is to price claims at 2026-27 rates while applying the 2025-26 travel, non-face-to-face and cancellation rules.
Can allied health providers claim travel and telehealth in 2026-27?
Yes. The 2026-27 Support Catalogue gives allied health and therapy separate modifier items for cancellation (_CA), non-face-to-face (_NF), provider travel (_PT), NDIA requested reports (_RR) and telehealth (_TH). The Agency validates each as a Direct Service, and provider travel items are priced at 50% of the full hourly rate.
What is the difference between the Pricing Schedule and the Support Catalogue?
The Pricing Schedule is the human-readable price list: item number, name, unit and the maximum national, remote and very remote prices. The Support Catalogue is the machine-readable item list, including each item's claim type, that claiming and practice-management software loads. Neither contains the narrative claiming rules that were in the old PAPL.
Can the NDIS claw back a claim if I get the rules wrong?
Yes. Under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, a payment a provider was not entitled to can be recovered as a debt, and the NDIA runs post-payment assurance reviews. Claiming travel, non-face-to-face time or cancellations outside the applicable rules can lead to repayment of amounts already received, which is why documenting the basis of each claim matters while the rules document is unconfirmed.
When will the NDIA republish the full PAPL rules?
The NDIA has not published a timeline. Updates appear on its pricing-updates page, and the Support Catalogue has already moved to version 1.1 since 1 July, so further documents may follow. Providers should monitor that page and re-check any interim assumptions once a 2026-27 rules document or addendum is released.
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