What you need to know 

Since the national roll-out of PACE began on 30 October, you have told us about a variety of issues. While many of these problems were already known to us and passed on, NDS keeps calling for improvements and welcomes some fixes proposed by the Agency. 

The Agency confirmed that since national roll-out, the proportion of participants who require My Provider relationships at the category level has increased and issues with the recording of My Provider relationships are known.  

The Agency has created a special team to address instances where My Providers have not been set up correctly. The team will be working with issues that have been logged via the National Call Centre (NCC) 1800 800 110 and via provider.support@ndis.gov.au  

The Agency has recently updated its My NDIS provider portal, which outlines the role and requirements for becoming a My Provider. My Provider roles are typically set to ‘ongoing’, and so do not need to be set for future periods. Participants can, however, elect to set up time-specific My Provider relationships.  

According to the ‘being recorded as a My Provider’ section of the My Provider webpage, providers with existing service bookings for home and living supports, behavioural supports or specialist disability accommodation need to ask participants to record them as My Providers in PACE.  

In developing new plans in PACE, NDIA planners should ask participants if they would like to endorse My Providers for particular categories of services. 

Providers report long call-waiting times for the NCC and, sometimes, their issues are not resolved. NDS advises members to always ask for a call reference number. If your issue cannot be resolved or you are given incorrect advice, there is more information on escalating unresolved enquiries among the Frequently Asked Questions.

Providers have told us that the webchat function can be better for quick, informative solutions.   

Providers have reported portal issues to us, such as not seeing details for error messages, not seeing notifications and individuals not being able to access the portal. The Agency will install four fixes by the end of December to solve many of these problems. The system and error message guide has also been updated.    

The NDIA Plan Managers webpage has been updated. Plan Managers do need to be recorded as a My Provider to be paid. In October, the Agency upgraded PACE to enable plan managers to view how much funding has been allocated to plan management fees under ‘choice and control budget’ in the participant’s plan information. We understand this upgrade is only applicable to participants who had a new plan built in PACE or who have asked for changes to their plan since this upgrade went live on 10 October. This means this funding visibility is not available for those who had PACE plans built before the October upgrade.  

For further details on making claims, view the Claims and payment webpage and for further information on plan flexibility view the Support Catalogue webpage.   

NDS has called for better support from the NDIA when providers have trouble with PACE and more education sessions to upskill providers. We understand that more PACE education sessions will be scheduled for early 2024.

For the latest PACE system enhancements, see the New System Improvements page on the NDIS website. For our frequently asked questions and insights from the Tasmania PACE trial, view the NDS PACE Hub.