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How to see NDIA-managed NDIS participants without your own NDIS registration

A practical guide for new and small allied health practices (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, exercise physiology, podiatry, speech pathology and more): how to say yes to NDIA-managed participants, get paid twice a week and claim every item you're entitled to, without the cost and audits of your own NDIS registration.

Free guide from Active Help · October 2026 · General information only, not legal or financial advice.

1. Who are NDIA-managed participants?

Every NDIS participant chooses how their plan funding is managed. That choice decides who can be paid:

NDIA-managed participants hold a large share of plan funding. Many have more complex needs: people in supported accommodation, people under guardianship, and people in regional and remote areas. Because many practices can't be paid for them, they are often under-served. For a practice that can take them, that's an opportunity: steady referrals that other practices have to turn away.

2. Why you can't claim for them yourself

For NDIA-managed funding there is no invoice address. The NDIA only pays registered NDIS providers, who lodge payment requests through the NDIS provider portal. So:

• the participant can't pay you and claim it back (that only works for self-managed funding);
• a plan manager can't pay you (NDIA-managed funding doesn't go through a plan manager);
• emailing an invoice to the NDIA won't get you paid.

3. Your options

Option A: Register your own practice

You can apply to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to become a registered provider. For therapy supports this means an audit against the NDIS Practice Standards and ongoing obligations (policies, incidents and complaints, worker screening, records, audits at renewal). The audit is paid for by the practice, often costs thousands of dollars, and comes round again at every renewal. It suits some larger practices. For a new or small practice it's months of work and real cost for a handful of participants.

Option B: Refer the participant on

Simple, but in many areas there are waiting lists, the participant goes without, and you lose the client and the income that comes with them.

Option C: Join the Active Help clinic network

Active Help is a registered NDIS provider. The NDIS Commission allows a registered provider to deliver supports through subcontracted practices, so your practice treats the participant as Active Help's subcontractor. Active Help claims from the NDIA, stays accountable for the supports and looks after the compliance side. Your practice stays unregistered and keeps treating its own clients, the way it always has.

Why practices choose Active Help

• Registered NDIS provider since 2018. We know the claiming rules and the compliance side, so you don't have to.
• Your clients stay yours. You keep your own clients, your own clinical decisions and your own way of working.
• Paid twice a week. Our pay runs are every Wednesday and Friday once the NDIA has paid, with a remittance email for every invoice.
• More income per client. We claim the items practices often miss, such as short-notice cancellations, provider travel and reports, when they're agreed with the participant.
• Paperwork done for you. Ready-made clinic and participant agreements, worker screening linked for your practitioners, insurance reminders, and compliance records kept on file.
• No setup, monthly, audit or exit fees. Just one simple percentage of each paid claim, so you only pay when you're paid.
• Regional and remote experience. We already work with practices in the city and in regional and remote areas.

4. Getting started with Active Help

1. Sign the Active Help clinic agreement. One short subcontractor agreement covering your services, records, the NDIS Code of Conduct, how claims and payments work, and the fee. We send it to you ready to sign.
2. Worker screening: each practitioner who sees NDIS participants needs an NDIS Worker Screening clearance (or an application underway, as your state allows). We link each clearance to Active Help. Screening takes time, so start early.
3. Registration and insurance: current AHPRA registration (or professional body membership where AHPRA doesn't apply), plus public liability and professional indemnity insurance. You send us copies once; we keep them on file and remind you before they expire.
4. Participant service agreement: we give you our ready-made template. It names Active Help as the registered provider, your practice and the therapist, and already includes the cancellation, travel and report terms. The participant signs it before the first session, so there's nothing to draft.
5. Records: keep your usual session notes with dates, start and end times and travel. That's what Active Help needs to show what was delivered.
6. Email your invoice to Active Help soon after each session. From 1 December 2026, NDIS claims must generally be lodged within 90 days of the support, so we claim quickly for you.

5. Claimable items practices often miss

The figures below are from the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025–26. Prices change each year, so always check the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements and your service agreement.

Short-notice cancellations and no-shows

• If the participant cancels at short notice or doesn't show, Active Help can claim up to 100% of the agreed fee, using the same support item that would have been used, with the claim type set to Cancellation.
• For therapy supports, short notice usually means less than 2 clear business days before the session.
• Conditions: the cancellation terms are in the service agreement, and the worker couldn't be given other billable work for that time.
• There's no hard limit, but if a participant cancels a lot, check in on why.

Provider travel

• For many therapy supports, the time a practitioner spends travelling to the participant can be claimed, within the NDIS caps for your area, if it's agreed with the participant.
• Where travel time can be claimed, the non-labour costs can be claimed separately too: up to $1.00 a kilometre for your own vehicle, and the full cost of tolls, parking or public transport.

Reports and non-face-to-face work

• NDIA-requested reports have their own claimable items.
• Other non-face-to-face work for the participant (for example writing a program or report) can be claimed where it's agreed and documented.

6. How you get paid with Active Help

• You treat as usual and email your invoice to Active Help.
• We check the participant's funding, lodge the claim with the NDIA and pay you in our twice-weekly pay runs once the NDIA has paid, less our fee.
• You get a remittance email for every invoice, so you can match each payment.
• Endorsement helps: when a participant endorses Active Help for their therapy in their NDIS plan, claims are usually processed faster. Ask the participant (or their support coordinator) to do this at the start; we can help.

7. Quick checklist

• Active Help clinic agreement signed
• Each practitioner has current professional registration and insurance (copies sent to Active Help)
• Each practitioner has NDIS Worker Screening (or an application underway), linked to Active Help
• Participant service agreement (Active Help template) signed before the first session, naming Active Help as the registered provider
• Session notes, times and travel recorded for every visit
• Invoices emailed to Active Help soon after each session
• Participant asked to endorse Active Help

Sources: NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (registration and subcontracting); NDIA, NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025–26 (short-notice cancellations, provider travel, non-labour costs). This guide is general information only, not legal, financial or clinical advice. Always check the current NDIS rules.

Active Help Pty Ltd · ABN 34 622 558 650 · Registered NDIS provider No. 4050027031 · Level 8, 25 Restwell Street, Bankstown NSW 2200 · admin@activehelp.com.au. We are not the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) or the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.