The NDIS has made prime time over the past few months, with the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 passing Parliament and receiving Royal Assent on 20 August 2026, following a lengthy Senate inquiry.

The result is the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, and it’s fair to say that a bit is changing for providers.

The headlines include a broader definition of an NDIS provider, new civil penalties and compliance powers, a seven-year record-retention requirement for certain claim-related records, a new 90-day timeframe for submitting claims, changes to plan management, a new provider enrolment system and changes to how NDIS pricing decisions are made. Yep, it’s a lot.

Importantly, these changes don’t all happen at once. Some provisions commenced on Royal Assent or shortly afterwards, while others will take effect between October 2026 and 2028.

For providers, the message is simple: don’t wait for each reform to arrive before reviewing your processes. Your claiming, record-keeping, registration and compliance systems should be ready for the changes that affect your organisation.

Let’s take a look at what’s changing and what providers should be doing now.

What will actually change for providers?

A lot of the detail will be determined through the NDIS Rules and subsequent implementation guidance. That means that details aren’t exactly concrete, but you should have them on your radar.

A broader definition of “NDIS provider”

The Act changes the legal definition of an NDIS provider. In practical terms, this brings more organisations and individuals within the reach of the NDIS regulatory framework.

This means businesses that may not previously have considered themselves squarely within the NDIS provider framework should review whether the new definition applies to them.

But we should qualify this: not every organisation providing disability services outside the NDIS automatically becomes an NDIS provider. The precise scope will depend partly on the Rules and how the new framework is implemented.

A new provider enrolment system

The Act introduces a new provider enrolment system, separate from NDIS registration. The new system is intended to establish a minimum level of identifiable information, while registration will continue to apply to providers and supports that fall within the mandatory registration framework.

The reforms also expand mandatory registration for providers delivering supports to participants considered particularly vulnerable to abuse, neglect or exploitation.

The enrolment and registration changes are being phased in, with the new provider enrolment system and expanded registration arrangements beginning to roll out from 1 July 2027.

For providers, establishing now:

• whether your organisation will need to enrol;
• whether your supports require registration;
• whether your existing registration arrangements will change; and
• what information your organisation will need to maintain and provide.

Civil penalties and stronger compliance powers

The reforms give the NDIA additional compliance and enforcement tools, including new civil penalty provisions, stronger information-gathering powers and new obligations relating to the retention of records.

The practical implication is that compliance can no longer be treated simply as a policy or governance issue sitting somewhere outside the billing function. The quality of your claiming records, supporting evidence and payment information matters now more than ever.

For providers, billing and compliance teams increasingly need to work together.

Seven-year record-keeping requirement

One of the most significant changes for claiming and billing teams is around record-retention. Providers will generally be required to retain prescribed records relating to NDIS claims and the supports to which those claims relate for seven years from the day the claim is made, unless the NDIS Rules prescribe a shorter period.

The legislation makes failure to comply a civil penalty offence.

There is an important distinction here: the legislation does not simply say that every conceivable NDIS-related document must be kept for seven years. The precise categories of records that must be retained will be prescribed through the legislation and Rules.

But providers should take this as a clear signal to review their existing systems. Ask yourself:

• Can we retrieve historical claims easily?
• Can we match claims to the supports that were delivered?
• Can we retrieve payment and remittance information?
• Can we demonstrate what evidence supported a claim?
• Are records stored in a way that remains accessible years after the original transaction?
• Do our retention policies actually match the new requirements?

For billing teams, this is particularly important. Good record-keeping is no longer simply good practice, but a formal compliance requirement.

Changes to claims timeframes

Another major change for providers is the 90-day timeframe for submitting claims. From 1 December 2026, claims must be submitted within 90 days of the support being delivered, subject to the detailed rules.

A 90-day limit means providers need to know:

• which services have been delivered but not yet claimed;
• how old each unsubmitted claim is;
• which claims require additional information before they can be submitted; and
• where potential claiming problems are developing before the deadline is reached.

In other words, providers should not treat the 90-day rule simply as a new deadline, but instead a billing-process control. Your systems and workflows should make it easy to identify ageing unclaimed services before they become a compliance or cashflow problem.

A new plan management provider panel

The Act also establishes a new framework for plan management providers. The government intends to introduce a panel of approved plan management providers, with the new approach beginning from 1 October 2027, followed by a six-month transition period.

Providers on the panel will be able to deliver plan management services but will not be able to provide other NDIS supports.

The reforms also introduce conflict-of-interest requirements where plan management and other support-delivery businesses are related. Those conflicts will need to be appropriately managed, including through arrangements with the NDIA involving disclosure and reporting.

Importantly, this does not mean that people cannot work across related organisations. Appropriate conflict-management arrangements can allow workers to be employed across different parts of a business structure.

For organisations currently providing plan management alongside other NDIS supports, this is something to start planning for well before October 2027.

Pricing decisions are changing

Another important change for providers is the transfer of responsibility for NDIS pricing decisions to the Minister for Disability and the NDIS. The relevant provisions began on 27 August 2026.

The practical effect of this change will depend on how future pricing decisions are made and communicated, but it reinforces that providers should not assume current pricing arrangements will remain static.

For providers, particularly those operating on tight margins, understand pricing changes quickly and ensure billing systems can respond to new arrangements.

New powers to adjust funding for certain supports

The Act also gives the Minister new powers to make support determinations that can affect funding for specified types of supports. This is a formal mechanism rather than a case-by-case power to simply change an individual’s plan.

Separately, participant budgets for social, civic and community participation and capacity-building daily activities are being progressively reset from 1 October 2026.

For providers working in affected support categories, monitor the specific funding and pricing changes that apply to the services you deliver rather than assuming that existing participant budgets or claiming patterns will continue indefinitely.

Differentiated pricing for unregistered providers

There is another pricing change providers should be watching. We’ve explored this before, but the government is consulting on differentiated pricing for unregistered providers delivering:

• social, civic and community participation;
• capacity-building daily activities; and
• assisted daily living supports.

The consultation is scheduled to run until 30 September 2026. If implemented, differentiated pricing could increase the gap between what registered and unregistered providers can charge for particular supports.

The broader reform timeline: what changes when?

The Act forms part of a much larger program of NDIS reform. Providers should have the following dates on their radar:

These dates are worth monitoring against the latest information from the NDIA and Department of Health, Disability and Ageing before turning them into internal deadlines.

What should providers do now?

This is a lot to process. But the best response isn’t to try to solve every reform at once. Instead, providers can start with a few practical steps.

1. Get ready for the 90-day claiming rule

Review how quickly your organisation moves from delivering a support to submitting the claim. If services are routinely sitting unclaimed for weeks or months, now is the time to understand why. Your billing system should make it easy to identify unsubmitted services and highlight claims approaching the 90-day deadline.

2. Review your record-keeping practices

Check your current retention policy against the new seven-year requirement. More importantly, check whether your records will actually be retrievable and usable years from now. Keeping a file somewhere isn’t enough if nobody can find the evidence needed to substantiate a claim.

3. Make your claim evidence accessible

The reforms increase the importance of being able to connect the dots between:

• service delivered
• evidence
• claim
• payment
• remittance.

Providers should consider whether their systems maintain this audit trail in a consistent and accessible way.

4. Check your registration and enrolment position

Don’t assume that your current registration status tells you everything you need to know about the new framework. Review whether your organisation will need to enrol, whether your supports fall within mandatory registration categories and whether any changes to your business model could affect your position.

5. Plan early if you provide plan management

If your organisation provides plan management alongside other NDIS supports, start considering how the new panel and conflict-of-interest requirements could affect your structure. The October 2027 commencement date may seem a long way away, but organisational changes, systems and conflict-management arrangements take time.

6. Monitor pricing and funding changes

Pricing and participant funding settings are changing alongside the legislative reforms. Don’t build your billing processes around the assumption that today’s pricing or funding arrangements will remain unchanged. Make sure someone in your organisation is responsible for monitoring changes and translating them into operational requirements.

7. Follow the official sources

Finally, make sure you’re getting reform information directly from the NDIA and Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. This is particularly important because some of the detail will continue to be developed through Rules, guidance and implementation decisions.

What does this mean for providers?

The overall direction of the reforms is clear: the NDIS is moving towards greater provider oversight, stronger claims scrutiny, more formal record-keeping requirements and more active compliance intervention.

For providers, the biggest lesson is that claiming can no longer be treated simply as an administrative task that happens after service delivery. Your claiming process needs to be:

• timely
• accurate
• evidenced
• auditable

It also needs to be capable of producing the records you need long after the original service was delivered.

Providers that already have clean, well-documented claiming processes have a head start. For everyone else, the reforms provide a useful prompt to look closely at how services move from delivery to claim to payment — and whether your systems are ready for the NDIS that is emerging.

If you have questions about how the changes could affect your claiming processes, contact the quickclaim team. We’re here to help providers navigate the changing NDIS environment and keep your billing processes running smoothly.