Are you Self-Managing your NDIS plan? Did you know you can use a Plan Manager too, and get the best of both worlds?
Many Participants are Self-Managing their NDIS plans, mostly because they get extra control over the way they purchase supports and greater flexibility in who they can purchase supports from.
What it means to be Self-Managed
According to NDIA data, around 30% of Participants are partly or fully Self-Managing their NDIS plans. While Self-Managed Participants and Nominees don’t receive any financial incentive, they do benefit through being able to directly pay for their services as they receive them, with no third-party involved.
In order to be reimbursed, Self-Managed Participants and Nominees need to have contact with the NDIA through the myplace portal, submit a claim and wait for funds to be sent to them. It literally pays to be organised.
A further benefit of Self-Management is having access to a larger number of Providers than is available through Agency Management. Self-Management can be especially handy when trying to get supports or services that are not readily available through registered providers.
Self-Management increases the power of the consumer, and also helps incentivise traditional providers to make their services more responsive. For example, if a registered provider has a waiting list or doesn’t provide a certain support, the Participant can look at other options available in the community that might better suit their needs, including unregistered Providers.
It’s worth noting that with all the above options — using a Plan Manager provides Participants and Nominees the same flexibility as Self-Management but without the burden of administration or added cost.
Another benefit of Self-Management is that Participants and Nominees can choose to pay more for their supports or services. This is a key difference compared to the other options, but it does have drawbacks. For example, every NDIS plan’s budget is calculated using the NDIS price guide. If there is 50 hours of therapy funded in a plan and the Participant chooses to pay more, they are effectively reducing the amount of support they can receive.
Get the best of both worlds
It is possible to have the best of both worlds — if you’re currently Self-Managed, you can keep managing the parts you want, and add Plan Management for the parts you don’t want to deal with.
Many people select a combination of Self and Plan Managed, so they can organise their own payments for Therapy services or smaller amounts, while getting Plan Management for the ongoing services or when there are larger amounts of funding involved – for example, for aids, equipment or assistive technology, or longer periods of therapy or respite, or for reports which can be billed across several hours and can add up to several hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
It’s easy to select Plan Management
There is no cost to you to explore the Plan Management option because the NDIS will fund it separately in your NDIS plan. Plus, you can select which parts of your plan you want to continue to Self-Manage. That means you can keep doing the bits you love doing, while getting someone else to do the hard, complex or boring parts of your NDIS finances.
Get a Light Touch Review
You can request a Light Touch Review if there is an administrative change that you need, like changing from Self-Managed to Plan Managed. It can be completed over the phone and should take no longer than a couple of weeks to approve if all is in order.
To request a change to your plan you can:
- Call your LAC and ask for Plan Management to be included in your NDIS plan
- Call the NDIS on 1800 800 110
Want to know more?
Now you know you can have a mix of Self-Management and Plan Management, but if you’d know more about how MyIntegra can help you get the most from your NDIS plan, get in touch with our friendly team today on 1800 696 347 for Plan Management or 1300 937 187 for Support Coordination.
If you have plan management in your plan already you can sign up with MyIntegra online.
