MediHealth Connect offers NDIS plan management in Ipswich and the Springfield corridor as a registered plan manager. We take the invoices, the portal claims and the budget maths off your plate and replace them with a clear monthly statement and a person you can call.
The NDIS gives you three ways to manage the funding in your plan. Plan management means a registered plan manager receives your providers' invoices, checks them against your plan and the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, claims the money from the NDIA and pays the provider for you. It is the middle ground between doing everything yourself and having the NDIA control which providers you can use.
Ipswich participants often ask what it costs. The answer is that it does not come out of your support budgets at all. Plan management is funded separately under Improved Life Choices, added to your plan by the NDIA when you ask for it. Your funding for nursing, therapy, support workers and equipment stays intact.
Ipswich is growing quickly, and new providers appear in the Springfield, Ripley and Redbank Plains areas every month. Our plan managers keep up with who is charging what, make sure your invoices are right and give you a clear picture of your budgets without any jargon.
Providers send invoices to us. We check the support against your plan, confirm the dates, hours and rates, and pay once everything lines up. You decide whether you want to approve invoices individually or have us process the regular ones.
Your statement arrives monthly and shows, budget by budget, what has been spent and what remains against the time left in your plan. If a budget is likely to run out early, or to be underused, we let you know in time to do something about it.
All claims go through the NDIS portal via our team. When a claim bounces, which happens more often than the NDIA would like to admit, we find out why and resubmit. You are not asked to log in or chase anything.
We compare every charge with the current price limits and support item rules, including evening, weekend and public holiday loadings, provider travel and cancellation charges. Anything that does not fit is queried with the provider and with you before payment.
The right choice depends on how much control you want over provider choice and how much administration you are willing to take on. The comparison below is written for an Ipswich participant weighing up the options.
| Plan-managed | Self-managed | NDIA-managed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice handling | Plan manager pays and claims | You pay, then claim reimbursement | NDIA pays registered providers |
| Provider choice | Registered and unregistered | Registered and unregistered | Registered only |
| Your paperwork | Almost none | Invoices, receipts and records for five years | Almost none |
| Where you see your balances | Monthly statement and on request | Your own spreadsheet or app | NDIS portal |
| Impact on support budgets | None; paid from Improved Life Choices | None | None |
In a region growing as fast as Ipswich, registered providers do not always have capacity, and some of the most useful local supports are unregistered: independent support workers in Springfield Lakes or Yamanto, home-based therapists, small domestic assistance businesses and community programs in Goodna or Rosewood. With an NDIA-managed plan, none of these can be paid. With a plan-managed plan they can, as long as the support is reasonable and necessary and sits inside your plan.
That is the practical reason many Ipswich participants move to plan management. It means shorter waits, more local options, and the ability to keep a provider you already have a good relationship with if they choose not to register. We still apply the NDIS price limits to unregistered providers and still require a compliant invoice.
To be clear about what we are: MediHealth Connect is not an independent plan manager. Independent plan managers provide plan management and no other NDIS supports. We also provide community nursing in Ipswich, Ipswich support coordination and other services, which means a participant could be paying one of our invoices through us.
We manage that potential conflict deliberately. Plan management is run by a separate team. A MediHealth Connect invoice is checked in exactly the same way as any other provider's and appears on your statement in the same way. You can choose another plan manager at any time, and we never tie one of our services to another. If you would prefer a plan manager with no other involvement in your plan, we will tell you and help you find one through the NDIS provider finder.
We manage plans for participants across the whole of Ipswich City Council's area, from the CBD and older suburbs through Springfield to the rural west. Plan management is delivered remotely, so where you live makes no difference to the service. If you are being discharged from Ipswich Hospital or another West Moreton Health service with new supports in your plan, we can have the providers set up before you leave.
Central: Ipswich CBD, Booval, North Ipswich, Brassall
Greater Ipswich: Yamanto, Raceview, Silkstone
Springfield: Springfield Lakes, Augustine Heights, Brookwater
Outer: Goodna, Redbank Plains, Collingwood Park
West: Rosewood, Walloon, Marburg
Changing plan managers takes a few steps and does not interrupt your supports.
The South East Queensland plan management page covers the service more generally if you want the bigger picture first.
No. When you choose plan management, the NDIA funds it through a separate budget called Improved Life Choices. Your core supports, capacity building and capital budgets are not reduced.
Request it from your NDIA planner or local area coordinator at your planning meeting or plan review. If you are mid-plan, you can ask for a plan variation. Once Improved Life Choices is in the plan, you choose the registered plan manager you want.
Yes. Plan-managed participants can pay unregistered providers, which includes many independent support workers, private clinicians and small businesses around Ipswich and Springfield. The support must be reasonable and necessary within your plan, and a small number of support types, such as those involving regulated restrictive practices, still require a registered provider.
Invoices are claimed and paid as soon as they pass our checks against your plan and the NDIS price limits. Our current processing times are written into your service agreement so you have them in black and white. If you have asked to approve invoices before payment, we hold them until you say yes.
Yes, at any time. Give your current plan manager the notice required by your agreement, sign up with the new one, and the two plan managers agree a handover date. Your plan, funding and providers are unaffected.
The NDIS allows it provided the conflict of interest is managed. MediHealth Connect provides both services in Ipswich, keeps the teams separate, applies identical checks to its own invoices and always reminds participants that they can use a different provider for either role.