NDIS Pricing Arrangements 2026-27 - What Changed and How to Update Your Rates

Each financial year the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) reviews and republishes the document that governs what registered and unregistered providers can charge for supports. That document is the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, and the 2026-27 version applies from the new financial year. If your rates, price book, or item codes still reflect last year's figures, every invoice you raise carries a small risk of over-claiming or under-claiming.

This guide explains what typically changes in the annual update, where to find the authoritative figures, and exactly how to update your rates and item codes so your billing stays accurate from day one of the new year. It updates and supersedes our earlier post, NDIS Price Limits 2025: What Care Providers Need to Know, which covered the previous pricing cycle.

What are the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits?

The NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (once commonly called the NDIS Price Guide) is the official document that sets the maximum prices providers can charge NDIS participants for each support. It works hand in hand with the NDIS Support Catalogue, which is the machine-readable list of every support item code, its unit of measure, and its price limit by registration group and state grouping.

Two points about these documents are easy to misread. First, the published prices are maximums, not fixed rates. You can charge below a price limit, but a registered provider cannot charge above it. Second, the price that applies to a given support is the one in force on the date the support was delivered, not the date you invoice. That distinction matters most in the first pay period of a new financial year, when supports delivered in June and July may sit on the same timesheet under two different sets of limits.

What changed in the 2026-27 NDIS pricing update?

The NDIA publishes a summary of changes alongside each annual release, and the specifics differ from year to year. Rather than guess at figures, work through the categories the NDIA itself flags, because a change in any one of them can affect what you can claim:

• Price limit adjustments. Many support items are indexed each year, and the direction and size of the change vary by category. Core supports, capacity building, and therapy items are reviewed separately, so do not assume a single across-the-board percentage.
• New, retired, or renamed support items. Item codes are occasionally added, deactivated, or restructured. A code that was valid last year may no longer be claimable, which is a common cause of rejected invoices.
• Claiming rules and loadings. Rules for travel, non-face-to-face time, cancellations, provider travel, and remote or very remote loadings are set out in the arrangements and can be updated.
• State and territory groupings. Some items are priced differently across state groupings, and the grouping that applies to a participant can affect the limit.
• Effective dates and transition notes. The document specifies when new limits take effect and whether any transition arrangements apply.

Where do I find the official 2026-27 price guide?

The authoritative source is published by the NDIA. Use these official pages rather than a third-party copy:

• NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits on ndis.gov.au, where the current document and the downloadable NDIS Support Catalogue are published.
• NDIS Annual Pricing Review, which explains the review process and links to the outcome for the year.
• The NDIS website more broadly, for provider updates and news that may accompany a pricing change.

Because the wage costs that underpin many disability supports are linked to the modern award system, it is also worth cross-checking your pay side against the Fair Work Ombudsman. A price limit change does not automatically move your staff pay rates, and a wage change does not automatically move your NDIS price limits. They are set by different bodies, and you need both correct.

How do the new price limits affect what I have already invoiced?

They do not. Once a support has been delivered and claimed under the limits that applied on its service date, a later price update does not claw it back or top it up. The practical implication is that your invoice accuracy depends on the service date recorded against each line, not the date you happen to generate the invoice.

This is where a mid-year change gets people. A single fortnightly pay period can straddle 30 June and 1 July. Supports delivered before the effective date must be claimed at the old limits, and supports delivered on or after it use the new limits. If your system stamps every shift and invoice line with an accurate local service date, the correct limit follows automatically. If dates are approximate or entered by hand, you can silently apply the wrong price to half a pay run. Our guide to NDIS invoicing covers how service dates should flow from a completed shift to a claim line.

How do I update my rates and item codes for 2026-27?

Treat the annual price change as a short, repeatable project rather than a scramble. Here is the checklist we recommend to CareIQ providers each July:

1. Download the current document. Get the 2026-27 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits and the matching NDIS Support Catalogue from ndis.gov.au. Note the effective date printed on the front of the document.
2. List every item you actually bill. Export the support item codes you have used over the past year. You only need to reconcile the codes you use, not the entire catalogue.
3. Reconcile codes first, then prices. Check each code still exists and has not been retired or renamed. Flag any that have changed, then compare the price limit for each surviving code against what you currently have stored.
4. Update your price book or catalogue. Enter the new limits in your software and set the change to take effect from the correct date, so supports before and after the effective date are priced correctly.
5. Check state groupings. If you operate across more than one state or territory, confirm the correct grouping applies to each participant, because some items are priced differently by grouping.
6. Review your service agreements. Your agreement with each participant sets the price you actually charge. If you charge at the limit, agreements that quote a specific dollar figure may need to be revisited so you are not stranded above or below the new maximum.
7. Run a test invoice. Before your first real pay run of the new year, generate a test invoice covering a mix of item codes and confirm the figures match the official document.
8. Keep evidence. Save a dated copy of the document version you applied. If a claim is queried later, you can show which price limits were in force on the service date.

How does CareIQ handle the annual price change?

CareIQ maps each support you deliver to the correct NDIS support item code and price, then generates invoices directly from completed shifts. When the annual arrangements change, you update the price book against the official document and CareIQ applies the right limit based on each shift's service date, so supports either side of the 1 July boundary are billed correctly without manual sorting. The NDIS Price Guide management screen lets you load the current catalogue and search item codes, and a test invoice confirms the figures before your first pay run.

The goal is simple. Get the numbers from the one authoritative source, load them once, and let the system apply them by date rather than relying on memory or a spreadsheet that quietly falls out of step with the published limits.