How to start a mobile physiotherapy business in Australia

Starting a mobile physiotherapy business looks simpler than opening a clinic. No lease, no fit-out, no reception desk. What replaces them is less visible: a car that becomes the corridor between your treatment rooms, hours of driving nobody pays for unless you plan for it, and several funders with their own rules about home visits. Get those right at the start and mobile practice can be a genuinely good business. Get them wrong and you work full days for part-time income.

This is the checklist we would work through, roughly in the order you will need each item. Where a rule or a number belongs to a regulator or funder, we say who to check with, because those change.

Registration, ABN and structure

• Ahpra registration. You need registration with the Physiotherapy Board of Australia, through Ahpra, to practise as a physiotherapist. Read the board's registration standards, including recency of practice, continuing professional development and professional indemnity insurance.
• An ABN. Register for an Australian Business Number before you invoice anyone.
• A business structure. Sole trader, company or trust each has different tax, liability and cost consequences. Talk to an accountant before you choose, not after your first year.
• GST. Many physiotherapy services are GST-free, but not everything you sell will be, and whether you must register depends on your turnover. Confirm with the ATO or your accountant.
• A business bank account, kept separate from your personal money from the first day.

Insurance

Professional indemnity insurance is part of your registration obligations. Beyond it, a mobile practice usually needs public liability cover, because you are working in other people's homes, and your car insurance needs to reflect business use. Once you employ anyone, workers compensation cover with your state scheme is generally compulsory. Ask your broker specifically about treating in private homes, residential aged care and outdoor settings.

The vehicle and the kit

Your car is now a work tool. Choose it for reliability, boot space and running costs, and keep a logbook from day one, because what you can claim for car expenses depends on the records you keep. Check the current rules with the ATO.

A practical starting kit for most mobile physios:

• A portable treatment table light enough to lift in and out of the boot several times a day
• Assessment tools: goniometer, tape measure, reflex hammer, blood pressure monitor and pulse oximeter
• Exercise equipment: resistance bands, light weights, a step and balance aids
• Infection control supplies, hand hygiene and cleaning wipes
• A charged phone with your practice software, maps and a way to take payment

Plan your own manual handling too. Lifting a table and kit in and out of a car all day is the quickest way for a physio to become a patient.

Territory: decide where you will not go

The most important business decision in mobile practice is geographic. Pick a service area you can cover with short drives, and hold to it. A patient forty minutes outside your patch costs you well over an hour of round-trip driving every visit, and that hour is rarely paid. Our post on why travel is the hidden cost in mobile practice shows how to measure it.

A simple way to start: list the suburbs within a set drive of your base, find out who refers in that area (GPs, aged care providers, support coordinators, hospitals discharging patients home), and book visits in clusters so each morning stays in one part of your patch.

Pricing travel

Set your fees knowing how much of your day is driving. Say you see six patients a day with twenty-five minutes of driving between each. That is more than two hours on the road before you count the drive out and the drive home. If none of your funders pays for travel, your fee has to carry that time. If some do, you need to bill it correctly and within their rules.

Options include a separate travel line where the funder allows it, a home-visit fee set above a clinic fee, or a minimum visit length. Whatever you choose, write it into your fee schedule and your service agreements so patients know before the first visit.

Funders and what each needs from you

You will probably work with several funders. Each has its own registration, paperwork and rules, so set them up one at a time:

• NDIS. Under the current rules you can work with plan-managed and self-managed participants without registering, while agency-managed participants need a registered provider. Registration is being reformed in stages, so check where you stand with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Provider travel can be claimable within the NDIA's current travel rules and price limits.
• Support at Home. Many allied health practices start as an associated provider to one or more registered providers, invoicing them rather than the government. Confirm the current program rules with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
• Medicare. You need a Medicare provider number from Services Australia to provide rebated services on a GP's referral. Check the item rules on MBS Online.
• DVA. Eligible veterans can be treated under DVA arrangements with a valid referral. Check provider requirements and fee schedules with DVA.
• WorkCover and TAC. Each state scheme and the TAC has its own provider registration and approval rules. Check what needs insurer approval before you treat, and before you bill travel.

The software stack

A mobile practice needs software that thinks in routes, not rooms. At a minimum you want a calendar that knows where each visit is, notes you can write on your phone, invoicing that prices per funder, and a way to get paid without chasing.

AspireOS was built alongside a Melbourne mobile physiotherapy practice for exactly this. The Calendar works out kilometres and minutes from the day's route and ranks free slots by the extra drive they add, and travel charges are added per funder from the day's drives. The practitioner phone app installs from the browser, with no app store, and lists your visits; on the Full plan it adds the run sheet and map. Each patient's funding card holds the fields NDIS, Medicare, DVA, WorkCover, TAC and Support at Home need. The mobile allied health page shows how it fits together, and pricing is per person, so you pay for the people you have.

You can start free, with no credit card, and set up your services, funders and fees before your first patient.