Most allied health practices are assessing these changes separately.
Updated: Aug 26
Allied health practices are absorbing more structural change right now than at any point in the past decade.
The NDIS reset. DVA funding reforms. Mandatory registration. Payday super. Ongoing wage pressures and workforce shortages.
Each change is typically discussed in isolation. Industry bodies explain the policy. Accountants discuss compliance implications. Software providers update systems and processes.
What receives less attention is what happens when all of these changes land on the same practice at the same time.
Because while the reforms are separate, the financial impact ultimately lands in the same place: your day-to-day operations, and your ability to keep running the practice the way you want to.
The NDIS shift
From 1 October 2026, the Commonwealth's Thriving Kids program will begin transitioning children under nine with low-to-moderate developmental delay or autism away from the NDIS and into a state-commissioned support model, with implementation continuing through to January 2028.
For many occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy and psychology practices, early childhood NDIS services represent a significant proportion of revenue.
The policy objective may be clear. The commercial implications are less certain.
Practices now need to consider:
• What proportion of our revenue is exposed to early childhood NDIS participants?
• How many clinicians are supported by that revenue stream?
• If participant numbers reduce, what does that mean for utilisation, staffing and practice's ability to keep growing?
Differentiated pricing for registered and unregistered providers adds another layer of complexity.
Historically, many allied health providers have operated successfully as unregistered providers. As pricing structures and participant behaviour evolve, practices will need to reassess where they sit within the market and what registration may ultimately cost to achieve and maintain.
The DVA picture
The Department of Veterans' Affairs has announced a move from treatment cycles to an annual funding model, including a $5,000 annual cap per veteran from July 2027 alongside a significant fee increase.
The fee uplift is positive.
However, practices with a large DVA client base may experience a different pattern of service utilisation and revenue than they have historically.
The consultation process remains ongoing, meaning many practices are currently planning around an incomplete set of assumptions.
Revenue does not need to disappear entirely to affect profitability. A relatively small change in client behaviour or funding access can have a meaningful impact when combined with other pressures already affecting the business.
The registration question
Mandatory registration is often discussed as a compliance exercise. In reality, it is also a commercial decision.
Registration may involve audit costs, governance requirements, additional administration, staff training, policy development and ongoing compliance monitoring.
The question is not simply whether registration becomes mandatory. It is what it will cost your practice to remain competitive and sustainable within the future operating environment, and whether your current margin can absorb it.
The cumulative effect
Consider a regional allied health practice with $1.5 million in annual revenue, 45% NDIS revenue, 15% DVA revenue, and 10 clinical staff.
Individually, each of the changes discussed above may appear manageable. A modest reduction in NDIS-funded activity. A change in DVA service utilisation. Additional registration costs. Higher employment-related expenses.
None of these factors alone are likely to determine the future of the practice.
The reality is that many practice owners have never had to model these scenarios before. Growth has often masked inefficiencies, absorbed cost increases and reduced the urgency of strategic planning. The environment ahead may be less forgiving.
Combined, the effect on profitability and cash flow can be significant. That is the challenge many practice owners are now facing. Not identifying individual changes. Understanding their combined impact.
The planning gap
Most practices already have trusted advisers. Their accountant is helping with tax and reporting obligations. Their software provider is updating systems and pricing schedules. Their peak body is advocating on policy reform.
What often falls between those conversations is a broader commercial question:
• How exposed is our current revenue model?
• What does our revenue mix look like in two years' time?
• How exposed are we if utilisation falls?
• What additional costs are likely to emerge?
• What adjustments should we be making now rather than later?
These are not compliance questions. They are planning questions. And they are often difficult to answer while managing a full clinical caseload and running a growing practice.
Change creates room to move - if you're ready for it
The practices most likely to navigate these changes successfully are not necessarily the largest. They are the ones that understand their revenue mix, know their numbers, plan early and make deliberate decisions about services, staffing and funding models.
Change creates pressure. It also creates room for well-positioned practices to strengthen their market position while others are reacting.
The disruption landing across the sector is not uniform. Practices with clear visibility over their numbers and a plan for the next 12 to 24 months are in a fundamentally different position to those waiting to see how things unfold.
Questions worth asking now
If you own or manage an allied health practice, start here:
1. What percentage of our revenue is exposed to NDIS reform?
2. If revenue reduced by 10%, what would happen to how the practice runs day to day?
3. How reliant are we on DVA-funded services?
4. What could mandatory registration cost us annually?
5. How will payday super affect our staffing and payroll planning?
If those answers are not immediately clear, the exercise is worth doing before the next financial year is fully underway.
Map where your referrals and revenue actually come from. Identify which parts of the practice are most exposed to these changes. Then think through what a 10% shift in any one of them would mean for how you operate.
Most practice owners find the exercise worthwhile. Some discover issues they did not know existed.
That is where we help.
At Allied Solutions, we work alongside allied health practice owners to understand the commercial impact of change before it becomes a problem.
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