PACE and your customers....
PACE has begun its national roll out as of October 30th. How can we help our customers in this new environment, where challenges of the change may cause confusion, not only for participants but from within the sector?
As a business you will need information on what the changes mean within your company, upskilling staff and giving focus to your customers on understanding what variations may affect them.
The PACE system has been developed to improve the experience of participants and providers, giving more reliable decisions, focus on participant outcomes, purportedly reduce admin burden, and simplify executing scheme legislation and operational changes.
How will this impact your customers?
Participant groups transitioning after 30th October2023.
Any customer with a change of circumstances (CoC) already lodged, advice is that some people will continue to be on the NDIA CRM (customer relationship management) as the NDIS transition participants to PACE.
Any customer with an expiring plan between November 2023 and February 2024 who require major plan modifications.
Participant groups transitioning from March 2024.
Any other participant, the move is progressive as plans begin to expire.
Agency Managed Participants and your business:
During the changeover, there will be two provider portals:
My NDIS Provider Portal: This is the new portal that providers will use to access customer information after the transition to PACE. It will serve as the primary platform for managing customer data.
My Place Provider Portal: Providers will continue to use this portal for tasks related to claims and financial transactions, including submitting claims, processing payments, and handling cancellations.
Endorsement of providers:
Service bookings will be switched with “my provider” under PACE.
A participant or nominee will need to let the NDIA know who they endorse as their agency managed provider, this can be done through various channels from LACs to the National Call Centre
The endorsement can be done at any time within the lifetime of the customers plan or at junctures - such as planning meeting, check-ins etc.
How will payments be handled:
Providers will be required to go through the bulk upload process and not use single claims for all customers under PACE.
Pay times will vary, dependent on whether you are an endorsed or not. “My providers” payments are automatically processed, and payment is within 3 working days.
“Unendorsed” providers process of invoices can take up to 10 working days as the NDIA will contact the participant to approve the claim.
Say goodbye to service bookings:
Service bookings for your customers will no longer be part of the scheme. This change is a response to concerns about providers holding budgets and the resulting confusion with fund allocation.
More importantly, this shift gives your customers additional choice and control to select multiple service providers and decide the duration of the services they wish to receive.
TIP There could be a lot of confusion with providers over this new rule. As a support coordinator or recovery coach, you will be expected to invest more of your time into budgetary organisation. There may be new service agreements made by providers encompassing these changes and more work for support coordinators in assisting customers to understand the new processes. You may also want to change your own agreement if you regularly service NDIA managed participants. |
Updates to the My Provider Portal Viewing Permissions:
Customer Consent is Necessary: Despite of your status as an endorsed provider, it is now necessary to obtain consent from your customers. These new rules have been considered to ensure that participants can choose who can access their funding and plans.
Provider Roles Determine Access: The level of access you have on the portal will be determined on your provider role. Providers will only be permitted to view the funding related to their role. As an example – Occupational Therapist will only be able to view the capacity building budget.
Access for Support Coordinators and Recovery Coaches: Support coordinators and recovery coaches will have more access to necessary information. This includes details, goals, nominee information, provider details, and real-time budget update
Plan/Self Managed Participants and your business:
Plan management: The NDIA requires all PM’s to be endorsed and you can help your customer by prompting this action at planning, implementation, check in’s or calls to the National Call Centre
Plan or self-managed customers: will not have endorse their other providers unless they have the following in their plans:
a. SDA
b. Home and Living Support
c. Behaviour supports.
d. Plan Manager
Plan Review is now Plan Reassessment:
1) The NDIS and its partners will start reaching out to participants approximately four months before their current plan expires. This earlier contact means that may need to change your reporting routine and develop strategies to keep track of plan end dates. Reports from all providers should be made available at that four-month mark. The NDIS is planning
on 3-year plans moving forward. The exception is children under 9.
2) Check-ins will occur yearly and can be unscheduled due to over/underspending of funding.
3) Interim reports may be required by the NDIS during these check ins.
4) In cases where the changes are minimal or the client's needs remain unchanged, the NDIS will proceed with developing the new plan without the need for a formal plan approval meeting. This streamlined process aims to make the transition to the next plan as efficient as possible.
5) The NDIA has also mentioned participants drawing down a yearly amount of their allocated budget.
Example: A customers plan is worth $142,000 over three years, they will be able to utilise $47,000 in each year.
(We could not find formal guidance on how this will work and whether participants will be able to utilise more than the allotted yearly stipend.) Watch this SPACE!
The thoughts around this change is linked to participants managing their funding and to lessening the impact of overspending and assisting with underspending at the ground level with the yearly check-in.
Customer Access to their Portal and phone app:
A new participant portal has been developed and updates to the app. Only when the client has a new plan in PACE can they access the new portal, which is accessed through MyGov.
All clients with a current plan not in PACE can still continue to use the myplace portal.
App users can still use the app, although the interface may change, they can still have access to their plan, or payments and do not need to download a new version.
More Participant Flexibility under PACE:
PACE plans will now be organised according to support categories, with no modifications to the existing flexible supports. Budgets will be specified at the support category level as whole numbers, rather than itemised costs.
Subsequently, participants will enjoy choice and control of their budgets.
The need for service bookings has been abolished. Participants are able to select and switch their preferred providers, as they wish (dependent on service agreements).
This change seeks to reduce administrative tasks for provider and allows more independence and flexibility.
Participant funding is no longer pre-allocated to future support.
Support types: Moving from 3 to 4
Core
Capacity Building
Capital
Recurring (transport)
Support Categories: Moving from 15 - 21.
The six new categories are stated supports:
Support Catergory | Support Type |
Home and Living | Core |
YPIRAC (Specialist Disability young people living in aged care) | Core |
Behaviour Support | Capacity Building |
Assistive Technology, Repairs and Rentals | Capital |
Specialist Disability Accommodation | Capital |
Transport | Recurring |
Community Connections:
Is available to any participant aged 9 to 64 who may be applying or not approved by the NDIS. The connections are administered by the Partners in the Community and can include:
Assistance with information.
Access mainstream, peer, and community support.
Help with accessing the NDIS.
The partners can also create a community connections plan, it will be different to current NDIS plan as there is no funding attached to the plan.
New Report Templates:
Rolling out are new report templates, one each for support coordinators and recovery coaches.
Guidance suggests that the new reporting templates should be used as standard by SC and PRC.
The main reports are progress and implementation.
Steering through these new systems may feel overwhelming. It is important to acknowledge that with anything new, an adjustment period will be necessary for you as the provider and your customers. We can all learn together.
Useful Links to learn more:
In other news:
The WA government has just released their updated version of restrictive practices. You will find the link here:
The Lama Care Team
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