Valuing an allied health practice

By capitalising its maintainable earnings, after paying every clinician including the owner a market wage, at a rate reflecting how likely those earnings are to continue under a new owner. The sector-specific work sits in three places: restating contractor and owner costs, mapping revenue by funding stream and the rules attached to each, and testing how much goodwill is personal to individual clinicians rather than attached to the practice. Where earnings are changing, a discounted cash flow may be used instead, and a practice whose earnings do not support goodwill is valued on its net assets.

Yes. A multidisciplinary practice is valued as one business, but its earnings are analysed by discipline because each has a different funding mix, wage market, price cap exposure and goodwill profile. HPNA tests whether the disciplines refer to each other in practice, whether shared overheads are allocated fairly, and whether any one discipline or clinician carries the profit. The result is a value for the whole practice with a clear view of which parts drive it, which is what a buyer, a departing partner or a family law matter each need.

On the same basis as a clinic, with different cost and risk drivers. There is no premises value or room constraint, so capacity is measured in clinician hours net of travel and report writing. Funder rules for travel and telehealth matter more: Medicare allied health services must run at least 20 minutes and the five-service annual limit covers the video and phone items as well, while the NDIS allows therapy travel time to be claimed at half the price limit, capped at 30 minutes each way in metropolitan areas and 60 minutes each way in regional areas. Goodwill tends to sit with contracts, referral relationships and the roster rather than with a location.

Read this page for the questions that apply across allied health, then the page for your discipline: physiotherapy, chiropractic, psychology, occupational therapy or speech pathology. Practices whose revenue is mainly NDIS or aged care funded should also read the NDIS and aged care pages, because those funders drive the analysis regardless of discipline.

Generally no, because they attach to the clinician rather than the business. In New South Wales a physiotherapist must hold their own SIRA approval to treat injured workers, which requires general Ahpra registration and SIRA's three-part introductory training, and that approval number is unique to them and cannot be used by anyone else. In Victoria, WorkSafe funds physiotherapy only from providers registered with WorkSafe who are also registered with the Physiotherapy Board of Australia other than as a student, and WorkCover Queensland will not pay for services by a non-approved provider. A buyer therefore acquires compensable revenue only to the extent the approved clinicians stay. HPNA identifies which clinicians sit behind each revenue line and weights it for transfer risk.

They can. Because a large share of chiropractic visits are partly funded by extras cover, changes to insurer benefits or to per-service and annual limits alter patients' out-of-pocket costs and can change visit frequency without any change in the practice itself. The valuer looks at revenue by payer type and at how the practice's fees compare with the benefits its patients typically receive. A practice with a loyal patient base that keeps attending when benefits fall is less exposed than one whose visits track the insurer's calendar year. This is a risk to be measured, not an automatic reduction in value.

It can reduce it to very little. A principal who personally delivers most of the visits is earning a wage for clinical work as well as a return on owning the business, and only the second is available to a buyer. The valuer deducts a market salary and on-costs for the owner's actual clinical hours, plus a market rate for the management time they contribute. Where nothing meaningful remains after that deduction, the practice is closer in value to its equipment, fit-out and the cost of establishing an equivalent patient base than to a goodwill-bearing business.

Only if the practice can convert it. A waitlist caused by unmet demand in a practice that can add a practitioner or a room is evidence of growth a buyer may pay for. A waitlist caused by an inability to recruit, or by a building with no spare rooms, is a constraint rather than an asset, and the revenue behind it may never be collected. We test the waitlist against booking data, recruitment history and the physical capacity of the premises before it affects the conclusion.

Because a price is one negotiation and a valuation is an estimate on a defined basis. The reported price may have included special value to that particular buyer, such as an adjoining site or a referral network, and it may have been shaped by deferred consideration, an earn-out, a restraint payment or the vendor staying on. Reported figures also rarely say whether shares or assets were sold, or what working capital came with the business. Until a transaction is restated onto the same basis as your practice, it is an anecdote rather than evidence.

No. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that an NDIS registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN, so a sale into a new entity requires a fresh registration application. For changes of ownership from 1 July 2026 the buyer must notify the Commission as soon as possible, and where the business delivers high risk or complex supports and the sale causes a significant change to the organisation or its governance, an audit must start no later than 3 months after the purchase. These points belong in the deal structure, not the settlement checklist.

Financial statements and tax returns for the last several financial years, current period management accounts, and a breakdown of fees by practitioner, by funding source and by service type. We also ask for practitioner agreements and remuneration terms, employment records, the lease and any options, an asset and fitout register, practice management system reports covering occasions of service, new patients, utilisation and non-attendance, and details of any registration, audit or payroll tax matter on foot. See what information is needed for a business valuation.

It is worth the maintainable earnings the practice can sustain once every clinician, including you, is paid a market wage for their clinical work, capitalised at a rate reflecting the risk of those earnings continuing without you. The earnings work removes one-off items, resets related-party rent and wages to market and charges your own clinical hours at replacement cost.

Most established physiotherapy practices are valued by capitalising future maintainable earnings: the profit the practice can sustain after every clinician, including the owner, is paid a market wage, converted to a value using a rate that reflects the practice's risk. The main risk factors are the owner's share of billings, the mix of private, health fund, Medicare, NDIS, DVA and compensable revenue, whether scheme approvals sit with the owner, the contractor structure and the lease. A discounted cash flow may be used where earnings are changing, and net assets set the floor.

Usually some, but less than the profit suggests. Goodwill that attaches to the owner personally (patients who would follow them, referrers who refer to them by name, approvals in their name) is not transferable. Goodwill that attaches to the location, brand, team, systems and contracts is. HPNA measures the owner's share of billings, the rebooking pattern across clinicians and who holds the referral and contract relationships, and considers what a transition period would preserve. A practice where the owner treats a full load and holds every relationship may have goodwill that is largely personal.

As a cost to be tested, not accepted. HPNA compares each split with the total cost of employing the same clinician, and considers whether the arrangement would be treated as a relevant contract for payroll tax under a ruling such as Revenue NSW PTA 041, which names physiotherapy practices among the medical centre businesses it covers. Comparable questions can arise for superannuation. Where a buyer would expect to carry those costs, maintainable earnings are reduced accordingly and any historical exposure is noted. These are valuation judgements about what a buyer would pay; the underlying tax position should be confirmed with your accountant or lawyer.

They add value when they are transferable and profitable after instructor and facility costs. HPNA checks whether classes are run by the team or personally by the owner, whether pool or gym access sits under a written agreement a buyer would inherit, and how the income has behaved when funders have changed what they pay for. Since 1 April 2019 private health insurers have not been able to offer cover for 16 named natural therapies, Pilates among them, so what a patient can claim may turn on whether the session is delivered and billed as a physiotherapy service. Income of this kind can shift for reasons that have nothing to do with how well the practice is run.

Yes. A buy-in valuation values the whole practice first and then the parcel being acquired, considering whether a minority discount applies (a reduction because the holder cannot control decisions) or whether the shareholders agreement requires a pro-rata value. It also considers how the buy-in will be funded and how the incoming clinician's own billings affect maintainable earnings. See share and equity valuations and internal transaction valuations.

It caps the revenue side of every NDIS hour, and it is reviewed annually by the National Disability Insurance Agency. The Australian Physiotherapy Association reports that the 2026-27 annual pricing review maintained the maximum hourly price limit for physiotherapy supports at $183.99, following a reduction of $10 per hour in 2025 after five years of frozen pricing. A practice with a large NDIS book therefore has limited ability to price its way out of wage growth, and a valuer will test margin on NDIS hours separately from private hours.

Partly, and the proportion is the central question. Goodwill that sits in the location, the brand, the patient database, the booking systems and the arrangements with referring general practices tends to transfer with the business. Goodwill that sits in one therapist's clinical reputation and their personal relationships with surgeons tends to leave with them. The valuation tests which is which by looking at revenue by therapist, by referrer and by new patient source, and by reading the restraint, notice and handover terms in that person's agreement.

As both an earnings question and a risk question. On earnings, a percentage of billings paid to a practitioner entity produces a different margin from a salaried therapist on the same billings, so the structure must be understood before any comparison. On risk, Revenue NSW Revenue Ruling PTA 041 applies the relevant contract provisions to entities conducting a medical centre business and expressly refers to physiotherapy practices, so a service agreement may make payments to a practitioner taxable wages unless an exemption applies. Other states and territories publish their own rulings, and the position should be confirmed with your accountant.

They can, because a class earns revenue from several patients in one block of therapist time, but they are not simply extra profit. A class is limited by room, equipment and safe class size, so its capacity ceiling has to be measured. Packages and memberships sold in advance create an obligation to deliver services that has not yet been earned. Under the GST law a supply is GST-free only where it is a listed health service supplied by a recognised health professional and generally accepted as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient, so general exercise programs may sit outside that test.

The same framework applies, with the funding mix doing most of the differentiating. A practice weighted to private fees and health fund extras carries different risk from one weighted to NDIS work priced under the Agency's limits, or to workers compensation work requiring a scheme approval held by the individual practitioner. The detail sits on the physiotherapy practice page.

Most established psychology practices are valued by capitalising maintainable earnings: the profit the practice can sustain after every psychologist, including the owner, is paid a market rate for their sessions, multiplied by a factor that reflects the risk of those earnings. The risk assessment is where the sector matters. It weighs how much revenue depends on the owner and on a few referrers, the mix of Better Access, private, NDIS, DVA, workers compensation and contract income, whether contractor splits carry payroll tax, and whether the intake system would keep the diary full without the current owner. Net assets set a floor, and market evidence is used as a cross-check where it is reliable.

Often very little, and sometimes none. If the owner delivers all the sessions and GPs refer to them by name, the earnings are personal goodwill that leaves with the owner, and the value may not exceed the net assets. Transferable goodwill can exist even in a small practice where a real intake system, a brand that generates enquiries, contracts held by the entity or a second psychologist with a full diary would keep revenue flowing under a new owner. A handover period in which the vendor introduces clients and referrers can preserve some value, but a buyer will usually pay for it on deferred or performance-linked terms.

Yes. Under Better Access, a 50 minute psychological therapy service delivered in rooms by an eligible clinical psychologist (item 80010) attracts a Medicare benefit of $149.05, against $101.55 for the equivalent focussed psychological strategies service used by other eligible registered psychologists (item 80110), so for the same fee the client's gap is smaller, or the practice can charge more for the same gap. That affects demand, fee capacity and margin per session. It also affects workforce cost, because endorsed psychologists generally command higher remuneration. The valuation models the practice's actual mix rather than assuming an average, and considers how easily that mix could be maintained if an endorsed psychologist left.

They may be, and the valuation will say so if the evidence points that way. State relevant contract provisions can deem payments under percentage-split arrangements to be wages, and the Queensland Revenue Office ruling on medical centres applies those provisions to healthcare businesses beyond general practice. We do not give tax advice or decide the liability. What we do is form a view on the likely treatment, include a payroll tax cost in maintainable earnings where that is the probable outcome, and identify any historical exposure separately so that you and your accountant can consider it before a buyer's due diligence does.

NDIS therapy and assessment revenue is delivered against the NDIS pricing schedule, which the National Disability Insurance Agency describes as the appropriate and reasonable maximum prices for NDIS supports and resets through its annual pricing review, so the practice prices to a ceiling it does not control and its margin moves when that ceiling moves. Assessment work, including functional behavioural assessments, pays well but arrives irregularly, and is normalised to a repeatable level. Registration brings access to more participants along with audit against the NDIS Practice Standards, and behaviour support work carries its own registration and practitioner suitability requirements. We treat a heavy NDIS weighting as a concentration risk and test how earnings would respond to a price reset or the loss of a support coordinator relationship. See NDIS business valuations.

Client files hold health information, and Australian privacy law applies to the vendor throughout, so due diligence is typically run on de-identified or aggregated data under confidentiality undertakings and controlled access rather than by opening the files. Psychologists also carry professional record keeping obligations. How the records reach the buyer, on what terms and with what notice to clients, differs between a sale of the shares in the practice company and a sale of the business and its assets, and should be settled with your lawyer. For the valuation, orderly records, clear ownership of the practice management data and a documented retention practice are due diligence strengths and evidence that clients will follow the practice rather than an individual.

Yes. Valuing an interest in a group practice starts with the value of the whole business and then considers what the specific interest carries: voting rights, entitlement to profits, restrictions on transfer and any shareholder or partnership agreement terms that fix a price. A minority interest, one that does not control the practice, may carry a discount against its proportionate share of the whole because the holder cannot direct distributions, remuneration policy or a sale, unless the agreement or the purpose of the valuation requires a proportionate value instead. See share and equity valuations.

It cuts both ways. Because individual Better Access services can be delivered by video or phone as well as in rooms, a practice can add sessions without adding rooms and engage psychologists who never attend the premises, which improves utilisation and reduces the rent carried by each session. The same flexibility lets clients anywhere choose a psychologist anywhere, so a practice that relied on being the local option is more exposed to competition. The valuation looks at the share of sessions delivered by telehealth, whether those clients came through the practice's own intake, and whether fees and collection rates differ from in-rooms work.

It is valued on what is left after the owner is paid properly for the therapy they deliver. We replace the owner's sessions with the market cost of engaging a psychologist to deliver them, and separately cost the principal and management time the owner contributes. Where almost nothing survives that adjustment, what is left is personal goodwill, and the conclusion a valuer can defend rests on the assets rather than on any multiple of earnings. That answer is more useful than a figure that will not survive a buyer's due diligence.

No. Services Australia states that a mental health referral is valid for the number of services shown on the referral letter even if the patient changes their treating allied health professional. The referral belongs to the patient's course of treatment, not to the business, so a patient can follow a departing psychologist without waiting for a new referral. This is one reason psychology carries more key-person risk than sectors where the funding attaches to premises or to an approval, and it makes restraint, notice and handover terms worth reading closely.

It changes the economics rather than settling the answer. At the time of writing the in-rooms psychological therapy item of at least 50 minutes for an eligible clinical psychologist, item 80010, carries a schedule fee of $175.30 and a Medicare benefit of $149.05, while the focussed psychological strategies equivalent for an eligible psychologist, item 80110, carries $119.45 and $101.55. A higher benefit means a smaller gap for the patient at the same fee. Against that, endorsed psychologists usually cost more to engage and are harder to replace, so the mix has to be tested on margin and on retention.

As an earnings question and a risk question. A psychologist paid a share of the fees they generate produces a different margin from a salaried psychologist on the same billings, so the two cannot be compared without adjustment, and the split must be tested against what a buyer would have to pay to keep the same people. There is a payroll tax dimension as well. Revenue Ruling PTA 041 in New South Wales brings the relevant contract rules to bear on medical centre businesses and on comparable providers that contract with practitioners or their service entities, with the result that payments under such a contract count as wages unless the arrangement fits an exemption. The position should be confirmed with your accountant and the relevant revenue office.

Only where the practice can convert it. A waitlist held by a practice that can add a psychologist or a consulting room is evidence of demand a buyer may pay for. Where the queue exists because no psychologist can be hired, or because those patients will see one named therapist and nobody else, it is a bottleneck rather than an asset and much of it never converts to billed sessions. We test it against booking data, the proportion of new patients who accept the next available psychologist, recruitment history and the physical capacity of the rooms before it affects the conclusion.

It does not move with the business. One registration attaches to one ABN, cannot be moved to another, and so a practice sold into a fresh entity applies for registration again from the beginning. Where ownership changes on or after 1 July 2026, the incoming owner has to tell the Commission promptly and refresh the key personnel record, and if the practice delivers high risk or complex supports and the sale materially changes the organisation or the way it is governed, a condition audit has to be under way within three months of settlement. None of that is a settlement day formality: it shapes whether the deal is done as shares or assets.

Most established chiropractic practices are valued by capitalising maintainable earnings: the profit the practice can sustain after paying the owner a market wage for the care they personally deliver, multiplied by a factor reflecting the risk that those earnings continue under a new owner. The valuer then adjusts for debt, surplus cash and the unearned balance of prepaid care plans to reach the value of the equity. Where goodwill would not survive the owner's departure, the practice may be worth little more than its tables, equipment and working capital. The method chosen depends on the purpose, the practitioner mix and the evidence available.

Cash received for visits not yet delivered is treated as a liability, not as income. The valuer restates revenue on visits actually delivered and deducts the unearned balance at the valuation date when moving from enterprise value to equity value. Refund terms are reviewed, because patients who stop part-way through a package and are entitled to a refund create a cash cost the buyer inherits. A practice that relies heavily on prepaid plans also attracts closer attention to how those plans are framed, given the Chiropractic Board's expectation that a program of care be based on clinical need with measurable outcomes and a plan for review. Well-documented plans do not reduce value; poorly documented ones may.

They can be. State revenue offices have published rulings on when a healthcare business that engages practitioners as contractors is paying them under a relevant contract for payroll tax purposes. Queensland's ruling on medical centres says expressly that it covers dental clinics, physiotherapy practices, radiology centres and similar healthcare providers, and Victoria's Revenue Ruling PTA-041 is harmonised with it. If a practice's contractor arrangements are caught by those provisions, the resulting payroll tax reduces maintainable earnings, and any unassessed prior periods become a contingent liability a buyer will price or exclude. Whether an exposure exists depends on the terms and operation of each arrangement and should be confirmed with the practice's tax adviser.

Usually only at the margin. MBS item 10964 covers a chiropractic health service of at least 20 minutes for a patient whose chronic condition and complex care needs are managed under a GP chronic condition management plan prepared or reviewed in the last 18 months, or under a multidisciplinary care plan, with a schedule fee of $74.55 and an 85 per cent benefit of $63.40, and the maximum of five services in a calendar year is shared with the other allied health items in that subgroup. For most practices this is a small share of revenue. Where it is material, it usually signals an established referral relationship with local general practices, which is a value driver in its own right, and it brings documentation obligations a buyer inherits.

The unit is valued as equipment at its depreciated replacement value, and imaging revenue is included only where it is clinically justified and likely to continue. Radiation licensing is state-based and splits in two. In Victoria, for example, the chiropractor taking the images needs a use licence under the Radiation Act 2005 while the legal entity that possesses the apparatus needs a radiation management licence, so the capability does not automatically pass to a new owner. The valuer confirms the licence and registration position, whether the incoming practitioner is licensed, and whether imaging patterns sit comfortably with the Chiropractic Board's expectation that radiographs be taken only where there is sufficient clinical justification.

Yes. A share valuation starts with the value of the whole practice and then considers what the particular interest is worth, which is not always a straight proportion. A minority interest that cannot control distributions, hiring or a sale may attract a minority discount, while a controlling interest may attract a premium. In chiropractic there is a further question: how much of the practice's goodwill the individual practitioner generates personally. An associate buying in, or a partner leaving, is usually valued by reference to the partnership or shareholder agreement and any formula or standard of value it sets. See share valuations.

Cash received for visits that have not yet been delivered is not revenue and is not part of maintainable earnings. It is an obligation to deliver those visits or refund the balance, so revenue is recognised as care is delivered and the unearned balance is carried as a liability in moving from enterprise value to equity value. The valuer reads the refund terms, expiry conditions and any direct debit or third-party payment arrangements, because the buyer inherits both the obligation and the refund exposure. How that liability is settled between buyer and seller is a matter for the contract and their lawyers.

Not automatically. The Chiropractic Board of Australia states that a chiropractor carrying out their own radiography must hold the required radiography licence or licences for their state or territory, must ensure the equipment is approved and registered by the appropriate authorities, and must comply with the ARPANSA Code of Practice for Radiation Protection in the Application of Ionizing Radiation by Chiropractors. Licensing attaches partly to the individual and partly to the equipment and premises, so a unit does not simply pass to a buyer with the fit-out. A well-used unit supported by current licences adds value; an idle one is an asset carrying compliance and maintenance cost.

Not as a straight fraction of the whole. The valuer first establishes the value of the business after a market wage for every treating practitioner, including the incoming associate, so the associate is not asked to pay for goodwill their own clinical work created. Then the interest itself is considered: whether it carries control, what the shareholder or partnership agreement says about drawings, exit and valuation on departure, and whether the associate's patients would follow them out. A minority interest in a practice controlled by the principal is a different asset from the same percentage of a whole.

They can, in two ways. Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law prohibits advertising a regulated health service using testimonials, offering a gift or discount without stating the terms and conditions, creating an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment, or encouraging indiscriminate or unnecessary use of the service. Ahpra states that maximum financial penalties for advertising offences rose in 2022 to $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate. Beyond the penalty, revenue produced by non-compliant marketing may not be repeatable in a compliant form, which reduces the earnings a buyer will rely on.

Most established practices are valued by capitalising maintainable earnings: profit is normalised for owner remuneration, unbilled owner time, travel and one-off costs, then multiplied by a capitalisation multiple reflecting the practice's own risks. The largest of those risks are dependence on the owner or a few therapists, concentration in a small number of NDIS participants or referrers, exposure to NDIS pricing and travel rules, and registration status. A discounted cash flow model is used where the practice is changing materially, and a net assets approach where goodwill would not transfer to a buyer.

Not automatically. An unregistered practice can lawfully serve participants who self-manage or plan-manage their funding, and many profitable practices do exactly that with lower compliance costs. It cannot serve participants with NDIA-managed funding, so its market is narrower, and it carries policy risk if mandatory registration is ever extended to therapy supports. A registered practice has a wider market and evidence of audited systems, but also audit obligations and, on a sale, notification and possibly a further audit. The valuation weighs these for the actual practice rather than applying a blanket premium or discount.

Then a large part of the goodwill is likely to be personal to you, and the valuation will say so. A buyer would need to replace your billings with an employed therapist at a market salary and would still risk losing participants and referrers who followed you. Value typically improves where your caseload is spread across employed therapists, your specialised capability is held by others in the team, referrals arrive through a practice intake process and you can step back for a period without earnings falling. A succession planning valuation can map that transition.

They often do, for two reasons. Contractors can leave with their participants, so earnings attached to them are less certain than earnings from employed therapists with reasonable restraints. Contractor arrangements may also attract superannuation and payroll tax liabilities: Revenue NSW Ruling PTA 041 applies the relevant contract provisions to medical centre businesses including physiotherapy practices and similar healthcare providers, and other states administer their own rules. The valuation adjusts maintainable earnings for a probable liability and reflects retention risk in the multiple. Whether your arrangements create a liability is a matter for your accountant. See payroll tax and contractor arrangements.

No. Published multiples for allied health practices describe a broad range of businesses and rarely disclose funding mix, registration status or therapist dependence, so applying one to your practice would replace analysis with an assumption. We assess maintainable earnings for your practice, select a capitalisation multiple from its own risk profile, then cross-check the result against whatever transaction evidence is available. Our article on EBITDA multiples for healthcare businesses explains why headline multiples mislead.

Yes. A share valuation for a buy-in first values the whole practice, then considers whether the interest being issued should be valued at a discount because it does not carry control over distributions, remuneration or a sale of the business. Shareholder agreements often specify how such interests are to be valued, and we follow the agreement where its terms are clear. The report explains the assumptions so the incoming therapist and the existing owners can both see how the figure was reached.

Yes, in how we verify the workforce and how we weigh compliance risk. Speech pathology sits outside the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme: Ahpra lists 15 National Boards and none of them covers speech pathology. Speech Pathology Australia regulates the profession through the Certified Practising Speech Pathologist credential, which is voluntary and subject to annual audit, and the title itself is not protected by law. Because there is no statutory register, we confirm each clinician's certification, insurance and worker screening from the practice's records, and we treat a lapse as an interruption to billing rather than a paperwork issue. An unprotected title also makes it easier for a departing clinician to compete, which we reflect in the risk assessment.

Two, and neither will carry a caseload. Item 10970 has a schedule fee of $74.55 for a service of at least 20 minutes under a GP chronic condition management plan, and the patient is limited to five allied health services a calendar year across all disciplines. Item 82020 has a schedule fee of $105.25 for a patient aged under 25 with a diagnosed complex neurodevelopmental disorder, such as autism spectrum disorder, or an eligible disability, capped at 20 services in a lifetime across the related items. Both require a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist with a Medicare provider number, so Medicare supplements NDIS, contract and private fee income rather than driving it.

Partly, and the proportion is the central question. Families and referrers often attach to the treating clinician, which is personal goodwill that leaves with them. Transferable goodwill attaches to what stays: service agreements in the entity's name, a clinician team with tenure, a managed waitlist, contracts with schools or aged care providers, systems and the brand. We measure how much of the caseload is treated by clinicians other than the owner and how the practice has handled past departures, and the conclusion follows that evidence rather than an assumption that goodwill either fully transfers or does not transfer at all.

Therapy assistants usually do; group sessions are more often misunderstood. Under the NDIS pricing arrangements, where a support is delivered to a group the price limit for each participant is the item limit divided by the number of people in the group, so running a group does not raise revenue per clinician hour. Its benefit is throughput against a waitlist. A therapy assistant is claimed under separate, lower-priced items, $56.16 an hour at level 1 and $86.79 at level 2 in the 2026-27 schedule against $193.99 for a speech pathologist. That frees certified clinician time, so a practice with a working delegation model can hold more caseload with the clinicians it has, which is worth more in a market where clinicians are scarce.

Not automatically, but they are tested rather than accepted. HPNA compares the split with the cost of an employed clinician including superannuation and leave, considers whether payroll tax would apply if the payments were deemed wages under the relevant contract provisions, and reads the contracts for notice, restraints and who holds scheme approvals. If the split model is cheaper only because entitlements and payroll tax have been left out, maintainable earnings are restated to include them. Whether any particular arrangement is compliant is a matter for your accountant or lawyer.

We restate contractor costs to current market terms and provide for payroll tax where the relevant contract provisions in the practice's state would apply, whether or not the practice has been paying it. Payments under a contract for services can be taxable wages: the Victorian State Revenue Office states that payments under a relevant contract are deemed wages unless an exclusion applies, such as a contractor who works for the principal for 90 days or fewer in a financial year. The exclusions differ between jurisdictions, so the position should be confirmed with your accountant. We also read the contractor agreements for who holds the service agreement with the participant and who owns the clinical records, because that decides whether a clinician can leave and take families with them.

They affect both the earnings and the risk. A contractor model usually reports a lower wage cost and a different margin from an employment model, so the two are not directly comparable without adjustment. Separately, state payroll tax rules on relevant contracts may treat payments to practitioner contractors as taxable wages. That exposure can appear as a historical liability a buyer wants priced or indemnified, as a reduction in the earnings the practice can sustain in future, or as added uncertainty until the position is confirmed with the practice's advisers and the relevant revenue office.

Not automatically, but they change what has to be assessed. Contractor splits are tested against what an employed clinician would cost, including superannuation, leave and payroll tax where the wages threshold is likely to be exceeded. Where they have run without a payroll tax provision, the possible historical liability is disclosed as a matter affecting equity value.