Independent podiatry practice valuations across Australia

Where podiatry revenue comes from

Private fees are the base of most clinics, with patients claiming part of the fee from their extras cover. The Australian Government's privatehealth.gov.au lists podiatry among the services general treatment cover may include, and warns that nearly all such services are covered only to a limited extent, with limits per service, per year or for a lifetime. APRA's statistics for the June 2026 quarter show the result: insurers paid $32.71 million in podiatry benefits across 736,774 services, against fees charged of $76.76 million, so patients met more than half of what was charged. Those limits are set by insurers, not by the practice.

Medicare contributes through MBS item 10962, a podiatry health service of at least 20 minutes for a patient whose chronic condition and complex care needs are managed by a medical practitioner (other than a specialist or consultant physician) under a GP chronic condition management plan put in place or reviewed in the last 18 months, or for an aged care resident with a multidisciplinary care plan. These plans replaced GP Management Plans and Team Care Arrangements on 1 July 2025; plans made under the old arrangements before that date support the item only until the end of 30 June 2027. From 1 July 2026 the schedule fee is $74.55 and the benefit $63.40. The five-service calendar year limit is shared with every other allied health discipline the patient sees, and MBS Online's own example of a permitted mix is one dietetics and four podiatry services. A GP or prescribed medical practitioner must refer, the podiatrist must report back in writing after the first and last service, and the same service cannot be claimed from both Medicare and a health fund.

DVA work starts with a referral, normally from the veteran's GP, under a treatment cycle of up to 12 sessions or one year, whichever ends first. Podiatry stays inside that cycle even for holders of a Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) Gold Card, unlike physiotherapy. A practice that accepts a Veteran Card takes the DVA fee as full payment, with no gap: from 1 July 2026 a subsequent consultation in rooms (item F012) pays $97.10. Change is scheduled. DVA's 2026-27 Budget information commits $169.7 million over five years to raise allied health provider fees, podiatry included, from 1 July 2027, and on the same date introduces a $5,000 Annual Monetary Limit on each card holder's allied health spending in a financial year, with a mechanism to fund more where there is valid clinical need. The same measure removes the treatment cycle. Higher fees and a shared spending ceiling pull in opposite directions, so DVA earnings after mid-2027 are modelled, not carried forward (see DVA arrangements).

NDIS podiatry is priced by the schedule incorporated into the Minister's pricing determination. The 2026-27 schedule, effective 24 September 2026, defines podiatry supports as those delivered by a person with current Ahpra registration as a podiatrist and caps them at $188.99 an hour nationally, $264.59 remote and $283.49 very remote, with provider travel capped at $94.50 an hour nationally. The caps bind for NDIA-managed and plan-managed participants: the NDIA cannot pay more and providers cannot charge more. The ceiling moves in both directions. The NDIA announced in June 2025 that it was aligning a number of therapy price points with non-NDIS market rates from 1 July 2025, and the Australian Podiatry Association reported that the podiatry limit fell by $5 an hour to $188.99 in that change. Consultation on 2027-28 prices closes on 1 November 2026 (see NDIS valuations).

Aged care arrives through two doors. At home, Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care on 1 November 2025. Its service list places podiatrists among the allied health and other therapeutic services in the clinical supports category, to which participants make no contribution, and says other programs already in place, such as a chronic disease management plan, should be used first. The registered provider sets the price, which must be reasonable, based on the cost of delivery and published on My Aged Care, and it cannot add separate administration or travel fees (see Support at Home). In residential care, the home must give residents access to allied health programs under item 8-155(2) of the Aged Care Rules; a facility contract is one way a home can meet that obligation. DVA has also funded allied health for eligible veterans in residential aged care, whatever their care level, since 1 October 2022.

Under the Aged Care Act 2024 a company subcontracted by a registered provider to deliver aged care services is an associated provider, while a sole trader with no employees who delivers the services personally is treated as an aged care worker. Either way the podiatrists need a police certificate no older than three years, or an NDIS worker screening check, and the registered provider remains accountable for compliance. Individuals and partnerships can now register as providers in their own right (see aged care valuations).

Orthoses, footwear and laboratory costs

Custom foot orthoses are a manufactured product sold alongside clinical care. The podiatrist assesses, casts or scans and prescribes; a laboratory or in-house milling equipment manufactures; and the patient pays a device fee that usually bundles fitting and early reviews. The valuer separates this stream from consultation income and tests its gross margin: device revenue against laboratory invoices, freight, materials and the clinician time spent on casting, fitting and remakes. Orthoses paid for but not yet dispensed are an obligation to deliver, and warranty or remake promises are a cost the buyer inherits.

DVA sets its own limits. A veteran may hold one pair of orthoses at a time, and in any 365-day period may receive either one each of items F222 and F266 or two each of items F221 and F265 before prior approval is needed. From 1 July 2026 a pair of custom moulded thermoplastic orthoses (F222) pays $433.65, a fee that includes follow-up consultations and the initial covers and posts. The podiatrist may prescribe but not supply medical grade footwear, and Rehabilitation Appliances Program items are ordered through DVA and supplied by a contracted supplier, so both add clinical work rather than product margin.

Maintainable earnings after a market podiatrist wage

Maintainable earnings are the profit a practice can be expected to produce in a normal year. They are reached through normalisation, which removes one-off, personal and non-market items, and are stated before interest and tax, either before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) or after them (EBIT). See maintainable earnings.

The largest single adjustment in most podiatry practices is the principal's own list. A principal who treats full days of general care, runs the aged care round and manages the laboratory relationship is earning a wage, not a return on capital. The analysis charges a market rate for the clinical hours actually worked, measured from appointment data, plus an allowance for management, and only the profit after that is capitalised. Travel time counts: hours driving between facilities are part of the job a replacement podiatrist would be paid for.

Principal dependence, workforce and goodwill

Goodwill is the value of a practice above its identifiable net assets. Personal goodwill attaches to a practitioner and leaves with them; transferable (commercial) goodwill attaches to the practice's location, recall system, referrers and contracts, and can be sold. Key-person risk is the exposure of earnings to the loss of one person. In podiatry it sits in different places for different patients. General care patients (nail, skin and diabetic foot care) come back on a recall cycle, which favours the practice if the recall system and records hold the relationship. Biomechanics and sports patients arrive on referral for an episode of care, which favours whoever holds the referrer. Aged care contracts follow the principal's relationship with the facility manager, and a contract in the principal's own name may not transfer at all. See practitioner dependence.

Replacement is harder in a short labour market. Jobs and Skills Australia's 2025 Occupation Shortage List rates podiatrists in shortage nationally and in every state and territory. A practice that already recruits, supervises and keeps associates carries less key-person risk than one that has never replaced a podiatrist (see the clinical workforce and value).

Endorsements and surgical podiatry

Some capabilities attach to the registrant, not the practice. The Board's endorsement for scheduled medicines allows a podiatrist to prescribe, supply and use certain Schedule 2, 3, 4 and 8 medicines for podiatric conditions. A service line that depends on prescribing depends on the endorsed podiatrist staying.

Surgical practice is a separate model built on specialist registration. From 5 October 2026 the protected title for podiatrists who perform surgical procedures changes from podiatric surgeon to surgical podiatrist. Where a surgical practice's name, signage, website or referral material uses the old title, the change may bring a one-off rebranding cost and a question about what the existing trading name is worth.

Infection control and sterilisation

Reusable instruments for nail and skin work make reprocessing central to a podiatry clinic. The Podiatry Board has replaced its former infection prevention and control guidelines with guidance for podiatrists and podiatric surgeons that takes a risk-based approach and refers to the Australian standard for reprocessing reusable medical devices (AS 5369:2023). It no longer prescribes a particular guideline to keep at the practice; it expects practitioners to use evidence-based, safe processes suited to their setting. A valuer therefore asks what the practice actually does: steriliser validation and maintenance records, instrument tracking, a defined reprocessing area, and how mobile podiatrists carry and return instrument sets. A steriliser near the end of its life, or a reprocessing set-up that needs rebuilding, is a capital cost deducted from value.

Contractor podiatrists, splits and payroll tax

Associates are often engaged as contractors on a percentage of their billings. Revenue NSW Ruling PTA 041 (issued 11 August 2023, effective from 1 July 2018) and Queensland Revenue Office Public Ruling PTAQ000.6.5 (issued 3 March 2025) apply the relevant contract provisions of each state's payroll tax law to medical centre businesses, expressly including physiotherapy practices and similar healthcare providers that engage practitioners to give patients access to their services. The Queensland ruling confirms that the state's exemption for payments to general practitioners does not extend to other health practitioners. In New South Wales, exemptions can apply where the practitioner provides services to the public generally or works no more than 90 days in a financial year, and payroll tax is payable only where total Australian wages, deemed contractor wages included, exceed the $1,200,000 annual threshold, at 5.45 per cent for 2026-27. If the arrangements are caught, payroll tax is a cost maintainable earnings must bear, and unassessed prior periods are a liability a buyer will price or exclude. Whether a particular arrangement is caught should be confirmed with the practice's tax adviser. See payroll tax and contractor arrangements.

Referrers, facilities and mobile rounds

Podiatry depends on referrers it does not control. Medicare work needs a referral from a GP or prescribed medical practitioner, DVA work needs a valid referral from the veteran's GP (or, for an initial treatment cycle, a medical specialist, treating hospital doctor or hospital discharge planner), and aged care homes and Support at Home providers decide who treats their residents and participants. The valuer maps revenue by referrer and by facility, and a dominant GP clinic or aged care group is a concentration risk, sharper if the contract is short, terminable on notice or personal to the principal (see referral concentration).

Mobile and facility rounds earn per visit and pay in travel. The NDIS caps provider travel at about half the hourly therapy rate. DVA pays $109.45 for an initial consultation at home against $97.10 in rooms, but it may pay a kilometre allowance only to a practice with a fixed location, not a mobile provider, and only for the part of a trip more than 10 km from the practice nearest to the veteran. Support at Home providers cannot charge participants a separate travel fee. The margin of a round therefore depends on route density and visits per facility day, read from rosters and run sheets as well as the accounts.

Premises, working capital and the conclusion

Fit-out, treatment chairs, sterilisers, scanners, vehicles and any milling equipment are taken at depreciated replacement value, with financed items treated as debt. The lease matters because general care patients are local, and a forced move can lose those who cannot travel further (see premises and lease terms). Working capital, the funds tied up in day-to-day trading, is mostly receivables from DVA, plan managers and aged care providers, plus orthoses in production; a normal level transfers with an earnings-based value. Enterprise value is then adjusted for debt, surplus assets and undelivered prepaid orthoses to reach equity value. Where only a share is being valued, the minority interest is assessed from that whole.