How to start an occupational therapy private practice in Australia

If you are an occupational therapist going private, you probably know the clinical work well. What tends to catch people out is everything around it: the provider numbers, the funder rules, the insurance, the reports that take longer than the sessions, and the evenings spent on admin a system could have done. This guide walks through the setup in a sensible order, so you can start seeing clients without leaving a gap you only discover six months later.

Rules and requirements change, so treat this as a checklist of questions and confirm each one with the body named.

1. Registration and the business basics

Occupational therapy is a registered profession under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, so you need current registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through Ahpra. Registration carries obligations into private practice with you, including professional indemnity insurance that meets the Board's standard, continuing professional development and recency of practice. Check the current registration standards on the Board's website.

• ABN and structure. Decide between operating as a sole trader or through a company with your accountant, and register a business name if you trade under one.
• GST. Many health services are GST-free, but not everything you sell will be, such as some equipment or non-clinical services. Get advice before you set up your invoices, and confirm with the ATO.
• Bank account and bookkeeping. Keep the business money separate from day one, and decide who reconciles it each month.

2. Provider numbers and funders

Each funder has its own front door, and it is worth working through them before your first referral arrives.

• Medicare. Apply to Services Australia for a provider number for each location you practise from. Occupational therapists can provide services under a GP's chronic condition management plan, and some can also provide mental health services if they meet additional requirements. Check eligibility and item requirements on MBS Online.
• DVA. Treatment for veterans is generally provided on a referral, under DVA's own fee schedules and rules for occupational therapy. Read DVA's notes for allied health providers before you accept a referral.
• WorkCover and TAC. Each state's workers compensation scheme, and the TAC in Victoria, has its own requirements for providers and its own fee schedule. Find out what is needed in each state you work in.
• Private health insurance. If you want clients to claim from their health fund, check each fund's requirements for recognising occupational therapy providers.

3. The NDIS registration decision

For many OTs the NDIS will be a large part of the work, and the first decision is whether to register with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

• Unregistered providers can work with self-managed and plan-managed participants, but not agency-managed participants.
• Registered providers can work with all three, and take on the audits, practice standards and quality obligations that come with registration.

Registration costs time and money, and the requirements depend on the supports you deliver. The rules are also changing: reforms passed in 2026 extend mandatory registration to higher-risk supports and require most providers to enrol with the NDIA, phased in from 1 July 2027. Check the Commission's current requirements, and the current NDIS pricing schedule for the support items and maximum prices that apply to occupational therapy, before you decide. Whichever way you go, the NDIS Code of Conduct applies to you, participants and their families may ask whether you hold an NDIS Worker Screening Check, and a written service agreement protects you both.

4. Insurance and safety

• Professional indemnity that meets your registration standard, kept current.
• Public liability, especially for home and community visits.
• Business and equipment cover, including assessment kits and anything you lend to clients.
• Vehicle cover that suits business use if you visit clients.
• A plan for working alone in clients' homes: who knows where you are, and what happens if you do not check in.

5. Assessments, reports and equipment

This is the part of OT private practice that is easiest to under-price. A functional assessment, a home modification report or an assistive technology recommendation can take as long to write up as it took to deliver, and if that time is not booked and billed it comes out of your evenings.

1. Book report-writing time in the diary as its own activity, linked to the client, so you can see it and bill it where the funder allows.
2. Know each funder's rules for non-face-to-face time before you start the report.
3. Use templates for the reports you write most often, and keep your wording consistent.
4. For equipment, record the trial, the options considered, the quote and the reason for your recommendation. Under the NDIS, assistive technology is assessed against the reasonable and necessary criteria, and the funder will want to see that reasoning.
5. Agree a turnaround time with referrers, and track which reports are owed to whom.

6. Systems from day one

It is tempting to start with a spreadsheet and a free calendar. That works for a handful of clients and stops working the week you need to show a plan manager an invoice history or an auditor your records. At a minimum you need booking, clinical notes, invoicing that handles each funder, service agreements, intake forms and a privacy policy that matches what you actually do.

In AspireOS, the Calendar books support activities such as reports and case conferences beside client visits, and letters are drafted from the record and sent as PDFs. AspireAi can build a progress report from completed notes for you to review and edit. Equipment and consumables go on invoices beside services, NDIS service agreements are drafted from your own template and signed online, and the funding card on each client's file holds the fields each funder needs. You can see how it fits occupational therapy on our solutions page.

New practices start on a 16-day free trial with no credit card, and our pricing page sets out the cost per person. You can start the trial and set up your services, funders and templates before your first client arrives.