Unregistered and Registered NDIS providers: What is the difference?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced back in 2016 to help support people with a disability that is affecting their ability to take part in everyday activities. The NDIS is there to fund support to participants in helping them achieve their goals and gain capacity in their everyday life activities.
NDIS providers help to accomplish this by delivering different types of services to meet their needs. There are two types of NDIS providers, unregistered and registered providers. Here in this blog, we'll help you to understand the differences between both.
NDIS-registered providers
NDIS-registered providers are providers that have been approved by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to deliver support to plan-managed participants. The NDIA is a government organization, and its role is to implement and oversee the NDIS. Registered NDIS providers get investigated by the NDIA to make sure they are following specific rules, regulations and agreements when providing services. Registering a provider can be a lengthy process and cost a lot of money, these are just the many reasons why providers choose not to be registered. If your NDIS plan is plan managed or self-managed, you can use both registered and unregistered providers. If your plan is agency (NDIA) managed, then you can only use registered providers.
Unregistered providers
Unregistered NDIS providers are providers that choose not to be registered. This can be for many reasons such as the cost to register, the time and energy as it’s a long process or not specializing in disability services like local gardening. Unless reported by the NDIA with sufficient evidence unregistered providers are not audited. This does not mean they are unprofessional and don’t follow rules, it just means that they haven’t gone through the formal process. A lot of unregistered providers are passionate about their work and exceed through to help NDIS participants achieve their goals.
How do I choose between registered and unregistered providers?
Both options are NDIS participants' personal choice. If you are plan managed or self-managed, both registered and unregistered providers have their pros and cons suited to the participant. It is important that you do your own research and discuss with providers that may be of interest with you. Organisations both registered and unregistered also usually have a social media presence, or some form of information readily available online. This is a good place to start when doing your research as you can gain insight into the vision of the business and look for key features you would like to see in the care you are provided and make sure the organisation's values align with yours.
In conclusion, the best way to find answers is to ask questions so you will find most if not all organizations will have a key person that will be able to take the time to listen to your concerns and queries and help identify what sort of care and assistance would suit you best. This should help make your decision-making process just that little bit easier.
