26 Mar 2020

BY: admin

Admin

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As you will be aware, we are living in very complex and challenging times. I want to affirm for you that the Child Wellbeing Centre will continue to provide therapy services in the weeks and months to come. Our aim is to provide a range of options to meet the needs of our children and families, including face to face consultation, telephone or video-conferencing and in some instance “therapy packages” for parents to work on with children at home.

As an allied health practice, we are considered an essential service. Further, we are being asked by both the NDIS and the Australian Government Department of Health to find ways to continue providing services during these difficult times. No one knows when the “other side of the pandemic” will arrive so we are now thinking about the short and long term strategies.

The NDIS introduced a number of measures at the start of the week to support service providers such as the Child Wellbeing Centre. This was done in recognition of the challenges ahead – both to keep therapy going and to keep staff employed.

A summary of changes is below. We ask for your support and co-operation as we introduce these new measures.

Proposed change What this means for you?
Price Increases

NDIS will temporarily increase prices by 10%  for services covered by Improved Daily Living (e.g. therapy services).

 

 

We will be invoicing the 10% and applying that to all invoices from the 25 March.

The good news here is that NDIS will also increase your child’s funding by 10% too, so it shouldn’t affect your child’s overall funding.

The bit we’re not clear about is when families will see this extra funding.

Cancellations

From 25 March 2020, participants will be required to give 10 business days’ notice (no longer 3pm, the day before) for a cancellation if they want to avoid paying the full fee for a cancelled service.

From 30 March, participants will be charged 100 per cent of the agreed support price if they cancel a service at short notice (no longer 90 per cent).

 

We will be rigorously applying the cancellation policy as per the NDIS requirements.

We understand that children may be sick or you may be self-isolating. However in the current environment, we don’t really have any other option if the Centre is to remain open in the longer term.

 

 

Normally when we make changes at the Centre I try to give a lot more notice. However we live in challenging times and my management team and I are making decisions day to day in the interest of our clients and staff. I sincerely hope these are temporary measures only and that we find our way back to “normality” soon.

Our preference is to keep providing therapy and problem solve how we can best do this with you. We have lots of creative ideas about how we can do this. COVID-19 doesn’t have to stop therapy.

Please feel free to talk to your case manager and consultant about these changes. Let us know if you are thinking of withdrawing from therapy and feel free to ask about the alternatives. Brookke Haggett, Business Operations Manager is also available to during the week should you need to have a chat.

Kind regards,

Naomi Ward

Clinical Director

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