Cancellations are a daily reality for NDIS providers. Without a clear, documented process for billing short notice cancellations, providers absorb these costs directly — and over time, they become a significant financial drain.
The NDIS defines a short notice cancellation as a cancellation made by a participant (or their representative) with less than the required notice period. For most supports, the notice period is two clear business days before the scheduled support. The short notice cancellation rules apply only to supports agreed to in the participant's service agreement — you cannot retrospectively claim a short notice cancellation for a support that was not formally documented in a signed service agreement.
For registered providers claiming through the NDIS portal, the short notice cancellation rate is 100% of the agreed support price, up to the price limit in the current NDIS Support Catalogue, for up to the number of hours in the cancelled appointment. When generating a short notice cancellation claim in your BPR CSV, use the same support item reference number as the original support and include the appropriate cancellation reason code in the CancellationReason field.
For every short notice cancellation claim you should be able to demonstrate: a signed service agreement that includes the cancellation policy and agreed notice period; a record of the cancellation notification showing the time and date it was communicated; and evidence that a worker was rostered for that specific time.
The NDIS uses data analytics to identify providers with unusually high cancellation claim rates relative to services in a participant's plan. This does not mean you should not claim legitimate cancellations — you absolutely should. But your documentation needs to be thorough and your cancellation rate should be reviewed periodically. If a particular participant is cancelling frequently, document conversations about this and any steps taken to address it.
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