Aged Care and Support at Home Reform in 2026: What Providers Must Know
The biggest structural change to Australian aged care in a generation is now live. The new Aged Care Act commenced on 1 November 2025, and with it the Support at Home program replaced Home Care Packages and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. For allied health practices, this is not a peripheral policy update — it redraws how in-home therapy is funded, who can deliver it, and how providers must be registered to bill for it.
This insight piece sets out what the 2026 Support at Home reforms mean for allied health providers: the new funding architecture, the elevated role of clinical and restorative care, the registration categories that now gate delivery, and the operational adaptations practices need to make to keep serving older Australians without interruption.
What changed on 1 November 2025
After the deferral from the originally legislated 1 July 2025 start, the rights-based Aged Care Act began on 1 November 2025, according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Support at Home is the in-home arm of that reform, and it is designed to help more than 1.4 million older Australians remain independent at home for longer.
The headline change for providers is funding. Where Home Care Packages offered four levels, Support at Home introduces eight ongoing classification levels, with annual budgets ranging from $11,795 to $78,106, per the Department’s published funding classifications. Those budgets are defined annually but delivered and managed as four quarterly budgets, with participants able to carry over unspent funds up to $1,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) into the next quarter.
How allied health is funded now
Support at Home groups services into categories, and where a service sits determines the contribution model. Physiotherapy, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, podiatry, dietetics, speech pathology and psychology fall within clinical care, which is fully funded by government. Everyday living and home-and-community supports attract participant contributions that vary with financial circumstances. For allied health practices, this is a favourable structural signal: the services you deliver are the ones the reform protects from co-contribution.
Two funding streams deserve particular attention from providers building an aged-care line of work:
A short-term, intensive pathway centred on allied health and nursing. It provides up to 12 weeks of intensive services — extendable by a further four weeks in some cases — with each episode funded at around $6,000 for up to 16 weeks, per the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. This is a direct opportunity for physiotherapy and exercise physiology providers focused on function and reablement.
A separate funding stream, so participants do not have to save from their quarterly budgets. From 1 July 2026 it runs across three tiers — Low ($513), Medium ($2,052) and High ($15,390) — and higher tiers require assessment and prescription by an allied health professional, with home modifications prescribed by an occupational therapist within scope.
The registration gate providers cannot skip
The Act brought in a universal provider registration model regulated by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Services are grouped into six registration categories by care complexity and risk. Allied health and therapy generally sit within Category 4 — for example, providers delivering the Restorative Care Pathway must be registered into Category 4 with both “Restorative care management” and “Allied health and therapy” selected.
To register, an organisation needs an ABN and must demonstrate its ability to deliver the aged-care services relevant to its category. In early November 2025, existing providers received a registration notification under the Act confirming their category. For practices that have historically delivered under Home Care Packages via brokerage, the practical question is whether your registration and subcontracting arrangements now cover the categories you intend to bill against. This is the single most common gap we see when allied health practices assess their readiness.
Operational changes for allied health practices
The reform rewards structure. Quarterly budgets mean tighter scheduling and utilisation tracking; the Restorative Care Pathway demands goal-based, time-limited programs with documented functional gains; and the AT-HM scheme requires clean prescriber workflows between occupational therapy, physiotherapy and equipment supply. Practices that treat aged care as an add-on to a diary will struggle. Those that build defined, outcome-reported programs — the same discipline that underpins strong value-based care in workers’ compensation — will scale cleanly.
For many single-site clinics, the compliance and administrative load of registration, quarterly reconciliation and clinical governance is the deciding factor in whether aged care is viable at all. This is one reason more practices are joining networks and considering how a platform supports scaling a physiotherapy practice without the overhead scaling at the same rate. The Support at Home shift sits alongside the parallel NDIS reforms in 2026 — both push allied health toward tighter registration, outcome reporting and funded clinical scope.
How HealthPlex supports providers through the change
HealthPlex operates 17 clinics across NSW, the ACT and Queensland, delivering allied health services including physiotherapy, exercise physiology and psychology — the same clinical disciplines that Support at Home funds fully. For practices weighing whether to build aged-care capability alone or partner, our multi-site clinical governance, outcome-reporting systems and referral infrastructure exist precisely to carry that administrative weight.
If you are an allied health practice, an aged-care provider or a referrer coordinating in-home therapy under the new program, HealthPlex can deliver the clinical assessments and reablement programs the reform prioritises. Explore our clinic locations or refer to us to arrange assessment.
Support at Home and allied health: common questions
When did Support at Home and the new Aged Care Act start?
The new Aged Care Act commenced on 1 November 2025, and Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme from that date, according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Is allied health funded under Support at Home?
Yes. Allied health therapy sits within clinical care, which is 100% government-funded under Support at Home. Participants pay no contribution toward clinical supports regardless of income or assets.
What is the Restorative Care Pathway?
It is a short-term, intensive allied health and nursing pathway of up to 12 weeks — extendable by a further four weeks in some cases — funded at around $6,000 per episode for up to 16 weeks, focused on maintaining or regaining function.
Do allied health providers need to register?
Yes. Under the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s provider registration model, allied health and therapy generally sits within Category 4. Restorative Care Pathway providers must be registered into Category 4 with both “Restorative care management” and “Allied health and therapy” selected.
How does the AT-HM scheme affect occupational therapy?
From 1 July 2026 the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme runs across three tiers — Low ($513), Medium ($2,052) and High ($15,390). Higher tiers require assessment by an allied health professional, and home modifications must be prescribed by an occupational therapist working within scope.
Alex W. writes on occupational and allied health policy for HealthPlex, an Australian occupational and allied health provider operating 17 clinics across NSW, the ACT and Queensland.
General information about the 2026 Aged Care Act and Support at Home program for allied health providers; not a substitute for individual clinical, legal or registration advice. Program rules, funding amounts and registration requirements can change — confirm current details with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.