Valuing an NDIS, aged care or community provider

Yes. A SIL business is valued on rosters of care, participant numbers per home, housing tenure or SDA arrangements, the sleepover and active night mix, and the requirement to be registered since 1 July 2026. A therapy provider is valued on clinician productivity, the price limits and travel rules for the discipline, participant numbers and referral sources, and the transferability of clinician relationships. Both are NDIS providers, but the earnings, the risks and the information HPNA requests are different, and so is the resulting multiple or discount rate.

On maintainable earnings, with particular attention to reform risk. Plan managers must be registered providers and are paid a fee per participant, so value tracks the size and stability of the participant book. Support coordination is not on the Commission's list of supports requiring registration, so it can be delivered by registered or unregistered providers. From 1 October 2027 only providers on an NDIA panel may deliver plan management, after an initial 6-month transition, and from 1 July 2028 support coordination is delivered by providers appointed through a merit-based process rather than funded in plans. HPNA considers whether the business will sit inside those arrangements and how many participants would follow the owner.

Your accountant may ask for one. A new company has a new ABN, and a registration cannot be moved to a different ABN, so the restructure is both a tax event and a regulatory one that is usually planned with the Commission's requirements in mind. A valuation at the restructure date records the market value of the business and its goodwill, which your accountant may need for capital gains tax and any concessions or rollovers that apply. HPNA provides the valuation. The tax treatment should be confirmed with your accountant.

It changes the risk analysis rather than the method. Paediatric caseloads are built on referrals from early childhood services, paediatricians, childcare centres and schools, and those relationships are often personal to the therapist who holds them. A registered practice delivering early intervention supports for early childhood (registration group 0118) sits in a certification audit group, a heavier and more expensive compliance load than therapeutic supports alone. Children also age out of early childhood supports, so the valuation looks at the age profile of the caseload, the flow of new referrals and how well the practice retains families as their funding changes.

Sometimes, and the answer depends on where the participant relationships sit. Goodwill is whatever the business is worth beyond its identifiable assets net of liabilities. Personal goodwill attaches to an individual, such as an owner who personally holds the referring support coordinator relationships, rosters every shift and manages every incident, and it cannot be sold. Transferable goodwill attaches to the business through documented service agreements, a screened and stable workforce, rostering and claiming systems, a clean audit history and referral sources that deal with the organisation rather than the person. A valuation tests which of the two is carrying the earnings.

Whichever date the purpose requires, but the choice matters more than in most sectors. Pricing is reset each financial year through the NDIA annual pricing review, and registration obligations, plan rules and claiming windows change on fixed dates set by legislation. A valuation prepared for a contract, a shareholder agreement, a tax event or a family law matter takes its date from that purpose, and the report should state which pricing and plan settings applied at that date. Two valuations of the same provider months apart can properly reach different conclusions.

Participant concentration, because NDIS revenue is not held under long-term contracts. Funding follows the participant, and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that on a change of ownership participants must not be automatically moved to the new owner and need to be able to find a new provider if they want. Where a small number of participants or a small number of referring support coordinators carry most of the revenue, the earnings a buyer will treat as maintainable are lower and the risk attached to them is higher. Both effects push the same way.

On the earnings the provider can sustain under the pricing settings at the valuation date, adjusted for participant concentration, workforce cost and compliance risk. The NDIA publishes an NDIS pricing schedule, effective 1 July 2026, setting what it considers appropriate and reasonable maximum prices for NDIS supports, so growth comes from volume rather than price. An NDIS business valuation also tests registration. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that registration is linked to a single ABN and cannot be transferred, and that for ownership changes from 1 July 2026 a buyer of a provider delivering high-risk or complex supports must start an audit no later than three months afterwards.

It is worth the maintainable earnings the business can sustain once the owner is paid a market salary for the work they actually do, capitalised at a rate reflecting the risk of those earnings continuing under a new owner. That means repricing historical periods to current pricing arrangements, testing the labour margin against award rates and real rostering, and removing one-off items.

Most often because the profit includes work the owner is not paid for, or a labour margin that would not hold if rosters, travel and supervision were funded properly. Concentration is the other common reason: where most revenue comes from a few participants or one referring support coordinator, a buyer prices the possibility of losing them.

Not to a different ABN. The Commission states that a registration is linked to one ABN which cannot afterwards be updated or amended, so a buyer taking the assets rather than the entity must hold its own registration across the same registration groups. Buy the shares and the company, its ABN and its registration continue, but from 1 July 2026 a change of ownership must be notified to the Commission as soon as possible, key personnel records updated, and, where a certification registration group is held and the sale significantly changes governance, a condition audit started within 3 months. Participants must not be moved across automatically. Structure should be confirmed with your lawyer.

Not in an asset sale. Registration under the Aged Care Act 2024 attaches to the legal entity, so a purchaser buying the business and assets must already hold, or apply to the Commission to vary, its own registration in the relevant categories before it can deliver and be funded for those services. In a share or unit sale the registered entity continues, and the sale, acquisition, merger or restructure is a notifiable significant change in the provider's organisation arrangements. A valuation states which structure it assumes, because price, conditionality and timetable all differ between the two.

Not automatically. At the time of writing the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that a registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN, so a successor who takes over through a new entity must apply for their own registration, while a change of ownership of the existing entity must be notified to the Commission as soon as possible. For changes of ownership occurring from 1 July 2026, a provider with a registration group that requires a certification audit must start a condition audit no later than three months after buying the business, where the change causes a significant change to the organisation or its governance. The valuation notes these steps because they affect when a stage of the plan can complete.

Not automatically, and the answer affects value as well as paperwork. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that a registration is linked to a single ABN, is not transferable to a different ABN, and that a business needing a different ABN must complete a new registration application, with a change of ownership notified as soon as possible. For pharmacies, section 90 of the National Health Act 1953 requires a pharmacist intending to become the new owner of an approved pharmacy to apply for approval to supply PBS medicines. We state what the valuation assumes about continuity; your lawyer confirms the position before the step plan is settled.

Not automatically. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that a provider's registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN, so a purchaser buying the assets rather than the entity generally needs to apply for registration in its own right. A change of ownership must be notified to the Commission, and for changes happening from 1 July 2026 a buyer of a provider delivering high-risk or complex supports may need to start a condition audit. The Commission also states that participants must not be automatically moved to the new owner.

No. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that a registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN, and that once linked, the ABN cannot be updated or amended. In an asset sale the buyer must therefore hold or obtain its own registration covering the same registration groups. In a share sale the entity and its ABN continue, so the registration continues with them, but the change of ownership must be notified to the Commission as soon as possible and key personnel details updated. That difference narrows the buyer pool for an asset sale and is priced in the valuation.

Not automatically, but it serves a smaller market and faces a different reform path. The Commission states that registration is required to deliver specialist disability accommodation, specialist behaviour support, plan management, supported independent living, NDIS digital platform services, regulated restrictive practices and any support to a participant with NDIA-managed funding. Unregistered providers can only serve participants who self-manage or plan-manage. Registration also brings audit, notification and worker screening obligations that cost money. The valuation weighs the wider addressable market against those costs and against the announced expansion of mandatory registration.

Not by itself. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that a registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN, and that a new registration application is needed if the business is to be linked to a different ABN. That distinction matters for a concentrated provider, because a sale of the entity that holds the registration and a sale of assets out of it are not the same transaction. The Commission also expects to be notified of a change of ownership as soon as possible, and structuring questions should be confirmed with your lawyer and accountant.

No, and that is part of why healthcare valuations differ from other business valuations. A Medicare provider number is issued to an individual health professional who is registered with Ahpra or an approved body and cannot be used by another practitioner. A pharmacist is approved under section 90 of the National Health Act 1953 to supply PBS medicines at particular approved premises, and a change of ownership of an approved pharmacy requires a fresh application. An NDIS registration is linked to a single ABN and is not transferable to a different ABN.

Not automatically, but it limits the market the business can serve and it is becoming a narrower position. Several service lines are closed to an unregistered provider: specialist disability accommodation, specialist behaviour support, plan management, supported independent living, digital platform services, any use of regulated restrictive practices, and every participant whose funding the NDIA manages. That leaves the self-managing and plan-managing segment of the market. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has also said that mandatory registration for higher risk supports starts rolling out on 1 July 2027 and completes by December 2030, so the unregistered position is narrowing rather than holding.

They cap revenue per unit of support, so the valuation focuses on volume, mix, utilisation and cost rather than pricing power. The NDIA describes the prices in its NDIS pricing schedule, effective 1 July 2026, as appropriate and reasonable maximum prices, and participants can negotiate lower prices within them. Settings follow the annual pricing review, and the 2026 amending Act gives the Minister power to make a pricing determination. Because claiming rules and item codes have moved between recent years, a margin built on an earlier rule may not be maintainable, so HPNA reprices the trading history to the settings applying at the valuation date.

They change the maintainable earnings base, and they change the risk attached to it. A valuation restates historical revenue to the rules applying at the valuation date, for example NDIS therapy travel claimable at half the price limit from 1 July 2025, or allied health services referred under the GP chronic condition management plan items that replaced the earlier plan arrangements on the same date. It then considers exposure to further change: a practice earning most of its fees privately is generally less exposed than one whose revenue is set by published price limits or fee schedules.

They set a ceiling on what time spent driving can earn. Therapy providers can claim half the relevant price limit for travel time, capped at 30 minutes each way in metropolitan MMM1 to MMM3 areas and 60 minutes each way in regional MMM4 to MMM5 areas, so a mobile practice generally earns less per working hour than a clinic-based one unless it schedules efficiently. The valuation examines the ratio of travel to therapy hours, whether travel is claimed correctly and what vehicle costs are not recovered. A high travel share is treated as both an earnings issue and a risk factor, because a change to travel rules affects that practice more than a clinic-based one.

They cap what each clinician hour can earn, so value turns on utilisation and on how well the practice recovers non-billable time within the rules. The NDIA's Pricing Schedule for 2026-27 sets a national limit of $193.99 an hour for a speech pathologist's direct service, with the same hourly figure for telehealth, agreed non-face-to-face work, NDIA requested reports and cancellations, and provider travel at $97.00 an hour. We restate past results to the settings in force at the valuation date. The 2026 amending Act also allows the Minister to set price limits on the NDIA's advice, which we treat as a risk in the multiple.

It is the largest single question for an early childhood caseload. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs will no longer be eligible for the NDIS and will instead be supported by Thriving Kids, with applicants assessed against the new criteria from 1 January 2028 and existing participants reassessed progressively. Design details are still being settled with states and territories. For a valuation it means a forecast built on the current intake may not hold, so we test the caseload by age band and support level and weigh the revenue that sits outside early childhood therapy.

It changed the revenue model. Since 1 November 2025 each ongoing participant has a quarterly budget set by one of eight classifications, and 10 per cent of that budget is deducted to fund care management, replacing the management fees providers previously set themselves. Contributions now depend on the service category, and from 1 October 2026 personal care is fully government funded. We restate historical accounts onto the current settings and value the business on the margin between what it charges and what delivery costs, weighted by how many participants it retained through the transition and how they spread across classifications and care managers.

Directly. Each home has a care minutes target derived from a sector-wide average of 215 minutes of care per resident per day, including 44 minutes of direct registered nurse care, and separately carries the 24/7 registered nurse responsibility. From 1 April 2026 part of the care funding of non-specialised metropolitan homes is paid through a care minutes supplement tied to the minutes actually delivered, and an externally audited performance statement is required from the 2025-26 Aged Care Financial Report. A home meeting its target with permanent staff has more secure funding, and a lower risk assessment, than one filling gaps with agency labour.

They affect both the forecast and the risk assessment. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that from 1 October 2026 budget allocations for social, civic and community participation supports will be reduced by 50 per cent and capacity building daily activity budgets by 10 per cent for new plans and reassessments, extending to other participants from 1 February 2027 at renewal. The Department notes the change reduces allocations rather than spending, so the revenue effect depends on how much of each budget participants actually draw. Claim times shorten from 1 December 2026 and unspent funds stop rolling over from 1 February 2027.

It narrows the population that provider serves, so it belongs in the forecast rather than in a footnote. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that from 1 January 2028 access will rest on a standardised assessment of functional capacity, that existing participants will be reassessed progressively over three years, and that children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs will be supported through Thriving Kids rather than the NDIS. A practice weighted to early childhood referrals may therefore face a step change in demand that its historical accounts do not show.

It depends almost entirely on service mix. On the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's published position, new plans and reassessments from 1 October 2026 carry halved allocations for social, civic and community participation, and allocations cut by a tenth for capacity building daily activities, with everyone else brought onto the same footing through plan renewal from 1 February 2027. A provider whose hours sit mostly in those two categories is looking at a repricing that nothing in its trading history reveals. A provider delivering critical supports, which the Department says are untouched, is not.

It lowers value in proportion to how far revenue depends on a few participants. The NDIA reported an average annualised plan budget of $488,200 for participants in supported independent living at 30 June 2026, so a SIL provider drawing most of its income from a dozen participants across three homes is exposed to any one of them moving or having a roster reduced at reassessment. HPNA measures revenue by participant and by referral source, reviews plan end dates and management types, and reflects the exposure in the capitalisation multiple or discount rate. A broader base across several support categories, with staggered plan dates, supports a higher value for the same earnings.

By looking at where the earnings could walk out the door. Support at Home funding follows the participant, and unspent Home Care Package balances transfer when a participant moves to a new provider. We measure participant tenure, the spread across classifications, how many participants each care manager holds, reliance on a single referrer, hospital or region, and, while a single provider must be able to deliver every service a participant needs, whether the service list covers them all. A long-tenured book spread across several care managers supports a stronger multiple than one built around a single coordinator or referral source.

No. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that participants must not be automatically moved to the new owner and that they need to be able to find a new provider if they want to. The Commission also expects a notification of a change of ownership to include the number of participants receiving supports and how those participants are being informed of the change and supported to exercise choice and control. For a valuation, that turns participant concentration from a background observation into a direct question about how much of the earnings base survives the transaction.

Rarely, but it typically changes the price and the structure. The NDIS Commission records enforcement action in Part 2 of the NDIS Provider Register and publishes a searchable list of banning orders, compliance notices, enforceable undertakings and suspensions or revocations of registration, alongside a separate list of infringement notices. Low-level actions such as warning letters are not published, so diligence still asks. In a valuation the effect is usually threefold: remediation is treated as a real cost, the risk of recurrence lowers the multiple, and unresolved exposure is dealt with through warranties, retention or a condition of completion.

Only to the extent they will actually be paid. Aged unlodged work is a warning rather than a receivable, because it usually indicates a claiming process that is not keeping pace with delivery. The window is closing, too: on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's announced timetable, claiming time drops from two years to 90 days on 1 December 2026, so a slow back office turns delivered support into forfeited revenue. Record keeping runs the other way, with payment and receipt records to be held for seven years and a civil penalty attached to losing them. The valuation looks at how old the unlodged work is, how often claims come back rejected, and why.

Management type changes who pays you, how fast, and what it costs to collect, and it decides whether you have to be registered at all. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission states that you must be registered to provide supports or services to participants with NDIA-managed funding, and that only participants who self-manage or plan-manage their funding can choose to use unregistered providers. So an agency managed book locks the business into registration and the audit obligations that come with it, while a plan managed book routes invoices through a registered plan manager, which adds an intermediary but usually means a professional payer and predictable claiming. A self managed book pays you directly and puts collection on you. None of these is inherently worth more. What a buyer prices is the resulting debtor profile, the administrative cost of claiming, the concentration of the book in any one channel, and whether the registration the business relies on can survive the transaction.

In substance, yes. A refundable accommodation deposit is a lump sum the provider must refund when the resident permanently leaves care, so it is a liability of the entity rather than part of the value of the operating business. We value the operating business first, then deduct deposit balances, accrued refunds and borrowings to reach equity value. Where deposits have funded the building, the corresponding value sits in the property, which is why the two are analysed separately and then reconciled. Retention deducted from deposits paid by residents on the 1 November 2025 accommodation arrangements is not refunded, is treated as income, and reduces the maximum deposit the provider may hold.

They are valued separately and then combined. We charge the operating business a market rent so its earnings are those a tenant operator would achieve, and the land and buildings are valued, or taken on instruction, on their own. This matters because the property is often held in a different entity from the operator, because lenders and purchasers price the two differently, and because building status drives the accommodation supplement rate the home can attract and the room prices it can charge. The report shows the operating value, the property value and the reconciled equity position.

Yes, with the transition built into the analysis. CHSP is grant funded under agreements with the Department, unspent grant funds cannot be rolled into a new agreement, and extra service types come only through a growth funding grant opportunity. Grant funding runs to 30 June 2027 and is being extended a further two years to 30 June 2029, and the Department states that CHSP will transition to Support at Home no earlier than 1 July 2027. We value the business on the likelihood that its assessed clients and its funding carry across, which depends on its registration categories, whether it already delivers Support at Home services, and where its revenue sits by service type.

Separately from the operating business. Specialist disability accommodation is the dwelling itself and produces a property-backed return, while supported independent living funds the workers inside it. Where the same owner holds both, the valuation usually assesses the enrolled dwelling on its own footing, restates any rent paid between the related entities to a market amount, and values the support operation on its normalised earnings. Combining the two into a single earnings multiple overstates or understates one side of the arrangement, and financiers and buyers generally look at them separately.

Differently from an operating provider, and the two should not be combined without care. Where value sits mainly in specialist disability accommodation dwellings, a net assets approach is often the primary method, with the enrolments, design category and vacancy history examined. Where one group holds both a property and an operating business, the valuation separates them and avoids double counting.