There's concern within Western Plains communities about how changes to the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025–26 will affect people with a disability living in rural, regional and remote areas.

NDIS pricing changes from 1 July 2025 will include:

• Travel claims cut by 50 per cent

• Physiotherapy rates dropping by $10 an hour, from $193.99 to $183.99

• Podiatry and dietetics rates dropping by $5 an hour from $193.99 to $188.99

Local providers say the reductions will make it harder to deliver services to the people who need them most.

Rachel Kerin, physiotherapist and Director of Kerin Health, says the changes were made without any consultation to providers.

Kerin Health is an overall provider based in Parkes which provides outreach in the form of physiotherapy, speech pathology, occupational therapy to places in Central West and Western NSW, including Narromine and Condobolin.

Rachel said providers with Kerin health travel an average of two hours a day to see clients, and the 50 per cent reduction in claimable travel allowance is having a big impact.

"We've already had occupational therapists and speech pathologists from Dubbo and Orange pull out of providing services," she said.

"We have had therapists from Sydney who used to fly-in pull out."

Rachel Kerin. [IMAGE: Kerin Health].

Already, the reduction has made things unviable for some businesses, but Rachel says Kerin Health will continue to service small rural and regional towns.

Federal MP for Parkes Jamie Chaffey attended a roundtable hosted by Marathon Health, which included seven NDIS service providers from Western NSW, who all expressed concern about the changes to the transport arrangements.

“It was distressing to hear the catastrophic impact these changes could mean for people who rely on these services to help them in their everyday lives,” said Mr Chaffey.

"Providers told me this change could mean providing services to people in hard-to-reach places could simply be impossible.

"People with health challenges in remote areas already face many more hurdles than those in metropolitan areas. This is yet another blow, and one that could mean the end to some in-home services.

"We have called on the Minister for Disability and the NDIS for a three-month moratorium of these changes to allow consultation and planning."

Rachel has advocated for a special rural travel allowance because of the affects the change has had on small towns in rural and remote areas, but the NDIS has implemented travel claims as a blanket rule.

"If people can't access the support they need, it puts a further strain on the health system, on emergency departments, and on schools," said Rachel.

"The Government will undoubtedly see the negative impact of this decision, and how it disproportionately affects rural NDIS participants and the provision of their healthcare."