A plan review decides your funding for the next year or more, and it goes better when it is prepared for. This guide explains how a support coordinator gathers evidence, writes the progress report and helps you decide what to ask for.
The NDIA does not fund what you tell it you need; it funds what you can show you need. That is the whole logic of plan review preparation, and it is why support coordinators start working on a review months before the date. MediHealth Connect provides our support coordination service across South East Queensland, and this guide walks through how we prepare a participant for a review.
Preparation begins about three months out, sometimes more. The coordinator checks the review date, works out what evidence will be needed and which providers must supply it, and books the appointments that generate reports: an OT for equipment or home modifications, a therapist for progress against goals, a GP or specialist for health-related supports, a nurse for clinical needs. Reports requested in the last fortnight before a review are late, and rushed reports are weak.
Good evidence does three things: it describes your disability-related needs specifically, it links each requested support to a goal or a risk, and it shows what happened with the supports you already had. Provider progress reports, clinical letters, a record of how funding was used and any incidents or hospital admissions during the plan are the raw material. The coordinator collects them, checks they say what they need to say and chases the ones that are missing.
The support coordinator writes a report of their own, summarising how the plan was implemented, what worked, what did not, where funding ran short or went unused and why, and what is recommended for the next plan. NDIA planners read these closely. A coordinator report that says "the participant needs more support" is ignored; one that says "the participant used 100 per cent of Core by month nine because of a change in mobility documented by the OT on this date" is not.
With the evidence in hand, you and the coordinator settle on the request: which supports to keep, which to increase, which to add, and any that are no longer needed. The request should be specific, tied to goals and backed by the reports. Asking for everything weakens the case for the things that matter; asking for the right things, well supported, is what gets funded.
Many participants want the coordinator at the review meeting, and a good one attends, keeps the conversation on the evidence and makes sure nothing is missed. When the new plan arrives, the coordinator checks it against the request, explains any differences and, if something important has been left out, helps you ask for an internal review within the time limit.
Around three months before the review date, earlier if you need reports from allied health or specialists with long waits.
Unused funding needs an explanation, because the NDIA may read it as unneeded. Common reasons, provider shortages, illness, a change in circumstances, are legitimate and should be documented in the coordinator's report.
Yes, if your circumstances have changed significantly. This is a plan variation or an unscheduled review, and it needs evidence of the change. Your coordinator can lodge it.
MediHealth Connect provides support coordination across South East Queensland.