Two of the most commonly confused supports in an NDIS plan do very different jobs. One handles the money. The other handles the services. Here is how to tell them apart and how to work out whether you need one, the other or both.
Participants, families and even some providers use "plan management" and "support coordination" as if they were interchangeable. They are not. They sit in different parts of your plan, they are funded differently, and they are usually delivered by different people. MediHealth Connect provides both NDIS plan management and support coordination across South East Queensland, and the question of which one someone actually needs comes up almost every week.
Plan management is about the money. A registered plan manager receives invoices from your providers, checks each one against your plan and the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, claims the funds from the NDIA and pays the provider. They send you regular statements showing what each budget has spent and what remains, and they chase up claims that are rejected or delayed.
Plan management does not choose your providers, does not set up your services and does not attend your plan review. If you ask a plan manager which physiotherapist to use, a good one will tell you that is not their role and point you to your support coordinator or LAC.
It is funded through a separate budget called Improved Life Choices, which the NDIA adds to your plan when you ask for plan management. It does not reduce your other funding. The main practical benefit, beyond not having to do the admin yourself, is that plan-managed participants can use unregistered providers, which NDIA-managed participants cannot.
Support coordination is about the services. A support coordinator helps you understand what your plan funds, finds providers with capacity who suit your needs, sets up service agreements, keeps the different providers working together, resolves problems when a service is not working, and prepares you for your plan review with evidence and a clear request.
Support coordination does not pay invoices or track budgets in the accounting sense, although a coordinator will keep an eye on whether your funding is being used at the right pace. If you ask a support coordinator to pay a provider, they will explain that this is what your plan manager, or the NDIA, does.
It is funded under Capacity Building, as a set number of hours in your plan, at one of three levels: support connection, support coordination and specialist support coordination. Not every plan includes it; the NDIA funds it where a participant needs help to implement their plan.
Plan manager: pays invoices, claims from the NDIA, tracks budgets, sends statements, lets you use unregistered providers. Funded under Improved Life Choices. Works mostly by phone, email and online.
Support coordinator: explains your plan, finds providers, sets up and manages services, resolves problems, prepares plan reviews. Funded under Capacity Building as hours. Works with you in person and with your providers.
The simplest way to remember it: the plan manager is your bookkeeper, and the support coordinator is your project manager.
Many participants have both, and for good reason. A support coordinator who arranges a new provider can hand the invoicing straight to the plan manager, and a plan manager who notices a budget running down early can flag it to the support coordinator so the plan can be adjusted. The two roles cover each other's blind spots.
Some participants need only one. If you are confident finding and managing your own providers but do not want the invoicing, plan management alone may be enough. If you are happy for the NDIA to pay registered providers directly but need help getting services organised, support coordination alone may be right. If you are unsure, a conversation with your LAC or planner at your next review is the place to sort it out, and either of our teams will give you a straight answer about which you need.
Yes, and MediHealth Connect does. The NDIS allows a provider to deliver plan management and support coordination to the same participant as long as the conflict of interest is managed. In our case that means separate teams, our own invoices being checked in exactly the same way as any other provider's, and a clear understanding that you can use us for one role and someone else for the other, or leave either service at any time.
Whether to have both with one provider is a matter of preference. Some participants like having one organisation that knows their whole situation. Others prefer the separation. Both are reasonable, and neither affects your funding.
MediHealth Connect provides plan management and support coordination across South East Queensland.