Support at Home pricing for allied health: prices and contributions

If you deliver physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry or another allied health service to older people at home, Support at Home changed the questions you get asked about price. Registered providers want to know your rate before they will refer to you. Families ask whether they will be paying part of it. And everyone has heard something about price caps. This post sets out how pricing works in the shape of the program, where the uncertain parts are, and what to keep straight in your own records.

Support at Home began on 1 November 2025, replacing Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care. The details are still being refined, so treat this as a map and confirm the current rules with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing before you change a price list.

Who sets the price

Under Support at Home, registered providers set their own prices for the services they deliver, within the program's rules. If your practice delivers services on behalf of a registered provider, as an associated provider, the price you are paid is the rate you agree with that provider. The registered provider then charges the service against the participant's Support at Home budget.

That gives you two prices to keep in mind:

• Your rate to the registered provider, set out in your agreement with them. This is what you invoice.
• The registered provider's price to the participant, which is what draws down the participant's budget and, for some services, sets their contribution. You may never see this number, but the participant and their family will.

If you are a registered provider in your own right, you set the participant-facing price yourself, and you carry the claiming and contribution work that comes with it.

Publishing your prices

The program expects registered providers to be open about their prices, so participants can compare providers before they choose. If you are registered, check the department's current pricing guidance on what you must publish and where, and keep your published list matched to what you actually charge.

If you are an associated provider, you are not usually publishing to the public, but in effect you are publishing to every registered provider you work with. A clear price list by service and session length, with your travel policy and your cancellation terms, makes it easy for a provider to say yes. It also stops the slow drift where each provider you work with ends up paying a slightly different rate for the same visit.

Where price caps stand

Price caps for Support at Home services were planned to start on 1 July 2026. In May 2026 the government paused them, without a new start date, and turned instead to other consumer protections, including new powers for the aged care regulator over overcharging and regular published information on the prices providers charge. Do not assume caps will stay off the table. Check the department's current position, and whether any caps would apply to the services you deliver, before you settle next year's rates.

If caps do arrive for a service you deliver, the practical work is the same as under any capped scheme: check each service's price against the cap, decide what happens to the gap, and make sure your system cannot produce a line above the cap by accident.

Participant contributions by service type

Support at Home groups services into types, and whether a participant pays a contribution depends on the type of service and their own circumstances. In the program's design, clinical supports, which is where allied health and therapy services generally sit, do not attract a participant contribution. Services aimed at independence and everyday living do, at rates that depend on the participant's pension status and means. The lines can move: from 1 October 2026, personal care moved into the clinical supports category. People who were already in the home care system before the change may be on transitional arrangements.

For an associated provider, two practical points follow:

• You do not collect the contribution. Services Australia assesses each participant's contribution rates, and the registered provider collects any contribution. Your invoice goes to the registered provider, not to the participant.
• The classification matters to the family. If a service is classed in a way that attracts a contribution, the family may ask you why they are paying. Point them to the registered provider, who holds their budget.

Confirm the contribution rules with the department or My Aged Care. They depend on each person's circumstances, and they are exactly the kind of detail that changes.

Keeping your own prices straight

• Price each service by length, not just by discipline, so a 30-minute and a 60-minute visit are separate lines.
• Decide whether travel is built into the rate or charged separately, and write it into each agreement.
• Record which registered provider each participant is with, because the rate follows the provider, not the person.
• Re-confirm the arrangement when a participant changes provider. Your agreement with the old one does not carry across.
• Review your rates at a fixed time each year, and give providers notice before a change.

How AspireOS handles Support at Home pricing

Support at Home is one of the eight funding types built into AspireOS. The services and price book holds a separate price, item code and travel rule for each funder in one grid, and patient-specific pricing covers a custom rate or fixed agreed lines for one participant. The funding card on the patient's file records their level, the registered provider you bill (AspireOS calls it the care partner) and their support plan, and invoices go to that provider, flagged if your agreement with them is not confirmed. The pricing guide export turns the whole price book into a CSV or PDF you can send to a provider.

To be clear about the edges: AspireOS bills the provider. It does not claim from Services Australia or track participant budgets. There is more on our Support at Home page, and our earlier guide covers how allied health providers fit into Support at Home.

You can start free, set up your Support at Home services and rates, and export the price list ready for your next conversation with a registered provider.