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Disability Services Commission
WA NDIS My Way
Quarterly Actuarial Review: December 2015
Issued: 17 February 2016
Alan Greenfield
Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia
Ash Evans
Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia
Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary
WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Sydney
Level 11, 55 Clarence Street Sydney NSW 2000
P 02 9249 2900 P 02 9249 2999
Melbourne
Level 6, 52 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000
P 03 9658 2333 P 03 9658 2344
ACN 087 047 809 ABN 29 087 047 809
www.taylorfry.com.au
Taylor Fry Pty Ltd – Consulting Actuaries & Analytics Professionals
WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Executive summary ....................................................................................................... 1
2 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Background ......................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Previous reports ................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Adjusted baseline forecast and key cost drivers for the trial ............................ 5
3 Access ............................................................................................................................ 6
3.1 Eligibility requests ............................................................................................... 6
3.2 Participants ......................................................................................................... 7
4 Plans............................................................................................................................. 10
4.1 Approval ........................................................................................................... 10
4.2 Support needs .................................................................................................. 11
4.3 Committed costs ............................................................................................... 16
4.4 Strategies .......................................................................................................... 21
5 Delivery ........................................................................................................................ 24
5.1 Payments .......................................................................................................... 24
5.2 Provision of commitment ................................................................................. 24
5.3 Operating expenses .......................................................................................... 25
6 Reliances and limitations ............................................................................................. 26
Appendix A Glossary .............................................................................................. 27
Appendix B Background ........................................................................................ 28
B.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 28
B.2 The WA NDIS My Way model ........................................................................... 28
B.3 An actuarial approach ...................................................................................... 29
B.4 Baseline forecast and key cost drivers for the trial .......................................... 30
B.5 Access ............................................................................................................... 30
B.6 Planning and approval process ......................................................................... 31
B.7 Delivery ............................................................................................................. 32
Appendix C Reference package and Individual Support Rank .............................. 33
C.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 33
C.2 Support scores .................................................................................................. 33
C.3 Support scores to ISR ........................................................................................ 34
WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Appendix D Disability segment mapping ............................................................... 35
Appendix E Participants by age, sex and disability ............................................... 37
Appendix F Baseline Forecast Summary ............................................................... 40
Appendix G Access and plan timing....................................................................... 41
Page 1 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Western Australia Disability Services Commission (“DSC”) began the WA NDIS My Way trial (the “trial”) in the Lower South West (LSW) region on 1 July 2014 and in Cockburn-Kwinana (CK) region on 1 July 2015. Taylor Fry has been appointed to carry out an analysis of the trial’s performance on a quarterly basis. This quarterly actuarial report covers the quarter ending 31 December 2015.
Participants, plans and funding
Table 1.1 provides a summary of the experience of the trial as at 31 December 2015 compared to 30 September 2015. This is only the second quarter to include CK participants.
Table 1.1 Summary of experience
As at
31 Dec 2015 As at
30 Sep 20151
Change since previous quarter
Total annualised committed costs2 $60,111,399 $47,084,184 +28%
Total number of participants 2,058 1,838 +12%
Total number of active plans 1,724 1,559 +11%
Total number of funded plans3 1,568 1,362 +17%
Average annualised committed costs $34,867 $30,202 +15%
1. For comparability, the previous quarter’s numbers in this report are adjusted to reflect our current view of past experience. Changes from the previous report include an increase in retrospective plan changes related to meeting “the changing needs and emergency expenses” of participants.
2. Committed costs shown are for approved plans. These costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs.
3. Total number of funded plans includes only plans with positive committed cost.
As at 31 December 2015 there are 2,058 participants spread over the two trial sites: 26% fewer participants than the adjusted baseline forecasts1 which set a benchmark of 2,767. The average annualised committed cost increased by 15%. Of this increase:
9% is due to new commitments for accommodation and professional services provided by DSC
1 Adjusted baseline forecasts are revised versions of the original baseline forecasts made as part of the bilateral
agreement with the Commonwealth. These benchmarks are derived from forecasts presented in the “Financial Sustainability Summary Report” by Alan Greenfield, Ash Evans and Kari Wolanski dated 26 October 2015. See Appendix F.
Page 2 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
6% is due to an increase in other funding committed, particularly for high-needs participants in CK.
The distribution of participants’ support needs is largely unchanged.
In our previous report, we reported an average annualised committed cost of $29,603. Our updated view of average annualised committed costs at 30 September 2015 is 2% higher ($30,202) due to retrospective increases in plan funding. My Way Coordinators make changes to plans in response to the changing needs of participants and emergency funding requirements. The increase in retrospective costs is particularly high in the December 2015 quarter because high demand in CK over the past six months has resulted in many short-term plans and delays of scheduled plan reviews. Consequently, once-off funding increases have been unusually high.
We expect that retrospective adjustment will be lower in future reviews as the initial surge of new plans in CK diminishes. Nevertheless, DSC and Taylor Fry will review recording practices in early 2016. We anticipate that this review will improve the transparency of plan modifications and the reliability of committed cost estimates.
The trial remains on track in terms of financial sustainability.
Plans: Scope, Volume and Price
The average committed cost of participants can be analysed by separately considering the support needs of participants’ first plans (including transferred plans at the beginning of the trial), archived plans, and their subsequent updated plans. In Figure 1.1, the average costs of these updated plans are shown in front of the average cost of the plans that they replaced (pink columns). The number of plans approved is shown at the foot of each column.
Page 3 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure 1.1 Average committed cost for first and updated plans1,2,3,4
1. Committed costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs 2. Approved in each quarter – viewed retrospectively using current data 3. Includes all approved plans – funded or unfunded 4. “Transferred plans” includes plans approved before 1 July 2014 in the LSW trial site, and before 1 July
2015 in the CK trial site.
Figure 1.1 shows that the 190 first plans approved in the December 2015 quarter have significantly higher average committed costs than previous quarters. This result is driven by the entry of new high-needs participants in CK. Similar to previous quarters, the average committed costs of subsequent plans is 35% higher than the average committed cost of the plans being archived.
Although updated plans are costlier than previous plans, the average committed cost of all approved and active plans is $34,867, which is 7% lower than the adjusted baseline forecast2 cost of $37,301. Figure 1.2 shows the distribution of approved and active plans by committed cost bands, for each disability segment.
2 See Appendix F.
1,0
10
34 13
6
44 70 17
0
19
0
27 81 13
2
18
2
25
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43
2
0
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Tran
sfer
red
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-14
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-15
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-15
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Qtr
Dec
-15
Qtr
Sep
-14
Qtr
Dec
-14
Qtr
Mar
-15
Qtr
Jun
-15
Qtr
Sep
-15
Qtr
Dec
-15
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First plans Subsequent plans
Ave
rage
co
mm
itte
d c
ost
($
'00
0)
Average committed costs of plan archived
Average committed costs of plan approved
Page 4 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure 1.2 Number of participants by committed cost band and disability segment
Management
For the quarter ending 31 December 2015 the operating expense ratio has been estimated at 20%. This is slightly lower than the figure of 21% for the 2014/15 financial year.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Nu
mb
er o
f p
arti
cip
ants
Committed cost band
Early intervention
Psychosocial
Physical & intellectual
Page 5 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
2 INTRODUCTION
2.1 Background
From 1 July 2013 the Commonwealth Government began the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (the “NDIS”) with the commencement of various trials around Australia. On 1 July 2014 the Western Australian Government commenced participation in the NDIS via a two-year trial. The WA State Government trial is based on its Local Area Coordinator model and is known as WA NDIS My Way (the “trial”). It is managed by the Western Australia Disability Services Commission (“DSC”).
The trial began in the Lower South West (“LSW”) region on 1 July 2014 and in Cockburn-Kwinana (“CK”) region on 1 July 2015. Further background on the trial, its performance framework, and key features of an actuarial approach is available in Appendix B. A glossary can be found in Appendix A.
This is the sixth quarterly actuarial report by Taylor Fry as appointed actuary to the trial. It complements DSC’s sixth quarterly report to the Commonwealth3.
2.2 Previous reports
Taylor Fry has previously conducted five Quarterly Actuarial Reviews as at the end of each quarter from September 2014 to September 20153. The last of these, as at 30 September 2015 is referred to as the “previous report”.
2.3 Adjusted baseline forecast and key cost drivers for the trial
Adjusted baseline forecasts of numbers of trial participants and average plan costs are sourced from the Financial Sustainability Summary Report by Alan Greenfield, Ash Evans and Kari Wolanski dated 26 October 2015. These “adjusted” baseline forecasts are modified from the “original” baseline forecasts by the Commonwealth for the purpose of funding the trial.
3 Both the quarterly DSC reports and the quarterly actuarial reports can be found here:
www.disability.wa.gov.au/wa-ndis-my-way/wa-ndis-my-way/quarterly-reports/
Page 6 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
3 ACCESS
3.1 Eligibility requests
Figure 3.1 shows the breakdown of the status of eligibility requests (eligible, ineligible, outstanding). In addition, it shows the baseline forecast of new entrants to the trial for each month.
Figure 3.1 Status of eligibility requests made by consent month1
1. The CK trial site commenced on 1 July 2015, resulting in an increase in the baseline forecast of eligibility requests.
There were 176 eligibility requests in the December 2015 quarter. Of these 176 requests, 157 were accepted, 4 were deemed ineligible, 14 remain outstanding and 1 was withdrawn. A further 5 eligibility requests remain outstanding from previous quarters.
Figure 3.2 summarises the number of days from consent to decision (for those requests with decisions made):
The orange line indicates the average number of days from consent to decision
The boxes indicate the spread from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile and the whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum observed
The white numbers in the bars give the number of consenting participants during that quarter.
0102030405060708090
100110120130140150
Jul-
14
Au
g-1
4
Sep
-14
Oct
-14
No
v-14
Dec
-14
Jan
-15
Feb
-15
Mar
-15
Ap
r-1
5
May
-15
Jun
-15
Jul-
15
Au
g-1
5
Sep
-15
Oct
-15
No
v-15
Dec
-15
Elig
ibili
ty R
equ
ests
Consent month
Ineligible
Outstanding
Accepted
Baseline
Page 7 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
For example, it took an average of 15 days to an eligibility decision for the 161 participants that consented in the December 2015 quarter. In that quarter, half of the consenting participants were decided between 6 and 21 days and the longest time to decision was 83 days.
Figure 3.2 Days between consent and eligibility decision1
1. See Appendix G for more details.
Table 3.1 summarises the number of requests outstanding at the end of the December 2015 quarter.
Table 3.1 Number outstanding at 31 December 20151
Consent quarter
pre-Sep-15 Sep-15 Dec-15
Number outstanding 0 5 14 1. See Appendix G for more details.
3.2 Participants
We examine the characteristics of participants to understand demand and future support needs.
42100
73 82 174 161 632
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Sep-14 Dec-14 Mar-15 Jun-15 Sep-15 Dec-15 Total
Day
s fr
om
co
nse
nt
to e
ligib
ility
dec
isio
n
Consent quarter
Page 8 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 3.2 compares the number of new entrants and transfers versus the baseline forecast. We discuss each further below.
Table 3.2 Actual versus expected active participants as at 31 December 2015
Transfers New entrants Total
Number of participants 1,461 597 2,058
Adjusted baseline forecast 1,308 1,459 2,767
Comparison 112% 41% 74%
There were more transfers from the previous project than forecast and there have been fewer than forecast new entrants. The net result is 26% fewer participants in the trial than forecast. It is worth noting that many transfers from the previous project are receiving funding for the first time.
Table 3.3 shows the 2,058 participants by disability segment for each sex and each age group.
Table 3.3 Disability segment by sex and age as at 31 December 20151
Primary disability All
Sex Age M
ale
Fem
ale
0-1
4
15
-24
25
-44
45
-64
65
+
# %
Physical, intellectual and other disabilities
1838 89 1158 680 724 358 349 395 12
Psychosocial disorders 177 9 74 103 1 11 67 98 0
Early intervention 43 2 27 16 42 0 1 0 0
Total
# 2058 1259 799 767 369 417 493 12
% 100 61 39 37 18 20 24 1
1. Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding
Viewing the demographic features by disability segment prompts the following observations:
Males make up 61% of all participants
Of the 1,838 participants in the physical or intellectual disability segment, 724 (39%) are under the age of 15.
Psychosocial disorders are more prevalent among females (58%) than males (42%).
All participants receiving early intervention support are receiving it in early childhood except one in the 25-44 year age band.
There are 12 participants aged 65 and over. Participants are afforded continuity of support when they turn age 65 if they were under age 65 at the beginning of the trial.
Page 9 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
A breakdown by primary disability type can be found in Appendix E.
Table 3.4 shows the 2,058 participants by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (“ATSI”) status and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (“CALD”) status.
Table 3.4 Participants by ATSI and CALD as at 31 December 2015
Primary disability
ATSI CALD
Yes No Yes No
# % # % # % # %
Physical, intellectual and other disabilities
81 4 1757 96 118 6 1720 94
Psychosocial disorders 4 2 173 98 4 2 173 98
Early intervention 3 7 40 93 1 2 42 98
Total 88 4 1970 96 123 6 1935 94
To date, about 4% of participants identify themselves as ATSI and 6% of participants identify themselves as CALD. The composition of these groups by Primary disability segment as shown in the table above is broadly similar to the overall composition.
Page 10 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
4 PLANS
4.1 Approval
Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1 show the number of days between participant eligibility and plan approval, and between plan endorsement and approval4, respectively. ‘Eligibility to approval’ only includes LSW participants that entered after 1 July 2014 and CK participants that entered after 1 July 2015. ‘Endorsement to approval’ includes all plans approved (new and transfers from the previous project), noting that participants may have multiple plan reviews (and thus approvals) over time.
Figure 4.1 summarises the number of days from when a particpant is deemed eligible to their first plan approval:
The orange line indicates the average number of days from eligibility to plan approval
The boxes indicate the spread from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile and the whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum observed
The white numbers in the bars give the number of new entrants that had their first plan approved in each quarter.
Figure 4.1 Days from eligibility to plan approval for new entrants1
1. See Appendix G for more details.
4 If plan approval doesn’t require escalation, the plan can be endorsed and approved at the same time.
Otherwise, the plan is endorsed and escalated before being approved. See Appendix B for more details.
25
94
75
64
98
20376
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Sep-14 Dec-14 Mar-15 Jun-15 Sep-15 Dec-15 Total
Day
s fr
om
elig
ibili
ty t
o p
lan
ap
pro
val
Eligibility quarter
Page 11 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.1 Days from endorsement to plan approval for all plans endorsed in trial
Endorsement Quarter
Number of
approved plans1
Average days
Median days
Minimum days
Maximum days
Number with same
day approval
Sep-14 68 4 0 0 23 38
Dec-14 218 2 0 0 27 150
Mar-15 177 3 1 0 19 83
Jun-15 257 3 1 0 45 112
Sep-15 443 2 0 0 34 238
Dec-15 605 2 1 0 27 299
Total 1,768 2 0 0 45 920 1. Endorsement to approval numbers includes first and updated plans (excluding plans approved before
trial commencement).
Figure 4.1 shows there have been 376 first plan approvals for new entrants up to 31 December 2015. The average time from eligibility to approval for these participants as at 31 December 2015 was 67 days, which has increased from 58 reported last quarter.
Table 4.1 shows there have been 1,768 plans approved in total since the trial commenced, including plans that have since been updated. Approval time tends to be short, with 52% of plans being approved on the same day as endorsement. This is at least in part because plan funding arrangements are typically coming in below delegation thresholds.
4.2 Support needs
Figure 4.2 examines the level of support needs for all participants. That is, this graph divides the participants with current approved plans into ‘high needs’, ‘low needs’ and ‘no needs’ for each type of support.
Page 12 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure 4.2 Level of support needs of participants with approved plans as at 31 December 2015
We observe that education, community, domestic life and working are the categories of support needs in which participants require the highest levels of supervision (blue columns). The depth of support needs is better illustrated by examining support scores shown in the following figure.
Figure 4.3 shows the depth of support needs for all participants with active plans as at 31 December 2015. For example, the cluster of bars for mobility on the left shows the proportion of participants that require each different level of mobility support. For example, the chart shows that a high proportion of participants (27%) never require mobility support.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%P
reva
len
ce
Support need
Does not need helpDoes not need help or supervision but uses aids or equipmentSometimes needs help or supervisionUnable to do or always needs help or supervision
Page 13 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure 4.3 Depth of support needs of participants with approved plans at 31 December 2015
Support with general tasks is the most essential, with 87% of participants requiring at least daily assistance. Relatively few participants have daily mobility needs.
We have translated each depth of support needs into a numerical rank from 0 to 5. “Never” has been mapped to 0 and “More than six times a day” has been mapped to 5. Table 4.2 shows the average support needs rank by primary disability type.
The colouring illustrates the range of support needs for each Support Category – for example, a dark red value picks out the Primary Disability that has a high support need in that category. General tasks, learning and interpersonal support categories have the highest needs based on the average rank for all disability types.
These averages show:
Participants with developmental delay or intellectual disability have above average support needs in all support categories except mobility,
Participants with autism have above average support needs in the learning, interpersonal and communication categories,
Participants with multiple sclerosis, other neurological or spinal cord injury have above average support needs in mobility and general tasks,
Participants with cerebral palsy have above average support needs in mobility and self-care,
Participants with psychosocial disorders have below-average support needs across all categories.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%P
rop
ort
ion
of
par
tici
pan
ts
Support score category
Never Less than weekly
Weekly (but not daily) 1-2 times a day
3-5 times a day More than six times a day
Page 14 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.2 The average support needs rank by primary disability for participants with approved plans as at 31 December 2015
We combine the support needs into a single individual support rank (ISR) between 0 and 9 for each participant (see Appendix C.3). The ISR allows a closer examination of variation in support needs between and within segments. Table 4.3 shows the number of participants
# approved plans Mobility Self-care General tasks Learning Interpersonal Communication
Physical & Intellectual disability
Acquired Brain Injury 38 3.0 2.6 3.6 3.0 2.7 2.2
Amputations (Single/Multiple) 8 3.0 2.4 3.1 0.3 1.1 0.1
Autism and Related Disorders 400 1.5 3.1 3.7 3.9 3.9 3.4
Cerebral Palsy 54 3.6 3.4 3.6 3.2 2.6 2.9
Corneal Disorders/Defects 1 5.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 0.0
Down Syndrome 4 3.0 4.3 4.5 4.8 4.5 4.8
Cornelia de Lange Syndrome 2 4.0 4.0 4.0 3.5 3.0 3.5
Deafblindness 5 3.2 2.2 3.6 3.0 3.0 3.0
Deafness/Hearing Loss 18 0.7 1.3 2.4 2.9 2.3 4.0
Dementia 1 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
Developmental Delay 74 2.4 4.0 4.1 4.2 3.8 4.1
Epilepsy 3 2.3 2.3 3.7 2.3 1.7 2.0
Fragile X Syndrome 1 4.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 3.0
Glaucoma 0
Global Developmental Delay 6 1.0 4.0 3.3 3.5 3.2 4.2
Hemiplegia 0
Huntington’s Chorea 2 2.5 2.5 4.0 3.0 2.5 2.5
Intellectual Disability 669 2.2 3.2 3.9 4.1 3.8 3.6
Meningitis/Encephalitis 2 1.5 2.0 3.5 2.5 3.0 2.5
Motor Neurone 6 3.5 4.2 4.5 2.2 1.2 3.0
Multiple Sclerosis 39 3.9 2.8 3.8 1.9 1.8 1.6
Muscular Dystrophy 8 3.6 3.5 3.9 1.9 2.1 2.0
Other Congenital Malformations or
Deformations1
5.0 5.0 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Other Injury/Poison/External Cause 0
Other Neurological 56 3.3 3.0 3.9 2.6 2.4 2.2
Other Physical Disorders 100 3.5 2.9 3.4 1.7 1.7 1.3
Other Sight Loss 23 3.4 2.1 3.1 2.0 1.7 2.0
Parkinson's Disease 4 3.8 2.8 3.3 2.5 0.3 1.8
Retinal Disorders or Defects 12 3.8 2.1 3.2 1.9 1.3 1.8
Specific learning - other than
Intellectual/ADD4
1.8 3.3 4.0 4.3 4.0 4.0
Speech Impediment and Other
Speech Difficulties1
2.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 4.0
Spina Bifida 13 3.5 3.6 3.3 2.2 1.8 0.8
Spinal Cord Injury - Paraplegia 23 4.1 3.2 3.6 1.3 1.7 1.5
Spinal Cord Injury - Quadriplegia 3 5.0 4.3 5.0 0.3 0.7 1.3
Spinal Cord Injury - Tetraplegia 1 5.0 4.0 4.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Stroke 4 3.8 2.8 3.3 2.0 1.5 1.3
Surgery/Medical Complications 3 3.0 1.7 2.7 1.7 1.3 1.3
Sub-total 1,590 2.4 3.1 3.8 3.5 3.4 3.1
Psychosocial Disorders
Bipolar Affective Disorder 21 1.3 1.7 2.9 1.5 3.0 1.7
Child/Adolescent Onset Psych
Disorder1
2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 2.0
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 1 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Other Psychiatric Disorders 53 1.3 2.0 2.9 2.0 2.9 1.9
Schizophrenia 39 1.2 2.2 3.1 2.9 3.5 2.6
Sub-total 115 1.3 2.0 2.9 2.2 3.1 2.1
Early Intervention
Autism and Related Disorders 0
Developmental Delay 14 2.1 3.1 2.8 3.7 2.9 4.0
Global Developmental Delay 3 4.3 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
Intellectual disability 2 0.5 1.5 1.5 4.0 3.5 2.0
Other Sight Loss 0
Sub-total 19 2.3 3.2 3.0 3.9 3.3 3.9
Total 1,724 2.3 3.1 3.7 3.5 3.3 3.1
Support category
Primary Disability
Page 15 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
with approved plans at 31 December 2015 for each ISR. Notably, the distribution has not changed since the previous report.
Table 4.3 ISR of participants with approved plans as at 31 December 2015
ISR Plans Observed
distribution
9 313 18%
8 332 19%
7 476 28%
6 104 6%
5 99 6%
4 175 10%
3 158 9%
2 36 2%
1 16 1%
0 15 1%
Total 1,724 100%
Figure 4.4 shows the distribution of these participants, split by new entrants and transferred participants.
Figure 4.4 ISR for participants with approved plans as at 31 December 2015
ISR 7 has the largest share of participants for both new entrants and transfers. Figure 4.4 supports our expectation that transferred participants are weighted towards high ISRs because most participants transferred from the previous project, which typically had a
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Dis
tirb
uti
on
of
par
tici
pan
ts
Support score category
Transferred participants
New entrants
Page 16 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
higher entry level of support for eligibility due to resource constraints. For new entrants, 59% of participants have ISRs below 7 compared with 29% for transferred participants.
4.3 Committed costs
Table 4.4 shows committed costs for participants with active and approved plans. These figures include unfunded plans. We have calculated that the average annualised committed cost is $34,867.
Table 4.4 Committed costs for active plans1,2
As at
31 Dec 2015
As at 30 Sep 2015
As at 30 Jun 2015
As at 31 Mar
2015
As at 31 Dec 2014
As at 30 Sep 2014
Total annualised committed costs ($’000)
60,111 47,084 17,805 16,410 14,887 11,293
Observed average annualised committed costs ($)
34,867 30,202 26,146 26,297 25,319 25,492
Adjusted baseline average annualised committed costs ($)
37,301 37,715 36,023 36,365 36,854 37,614
Comparison: Observed / Expected
93% 80% 73% 72% 69% 68%
1. Committed costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs 2. For comparability, previous quarters’ numbers in this report are adjusted to reflect our current view of
past experience. Changes from the previous report include an increase in retrospective plan changes related to meeting “the changing needs and emergency expenses” of participants.
Average annualised committed costs are 7% below the baseline forecast of $37,301. The average annualised committed cost increased by 15% since 30 September 2015:
9% is due to new commitments for accommodation and professional services provided by DSC
6% is due to an increase in other funding committed, particularly for high-needs participants in CK.
The distribution of participants’ support needs is largely unchanged.
Page 17 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
In our previous report, we reported an average annualised committed cost of $29,603. Our updated view of average annualised committed costs at 30 September 2015 is 2% higher due to retrospective increases in plan funding. My Way Coordinators make changes to plans in response to the changing needs of participants and emergency funding requirements. The retrospective increase in costs is particularly high in the December 2015 quarter because high demand in CK over the past six months has resulted in many short-term plans and delays of scheduled plan reviews. Consequently, once-off funding increases have been unusually high.
We expect that retrospective adjustments will be lower in future reviews as the initial surge of new plans in CK diminishes. Nevertheless, DSC and Taylor Fry will review recording practices in early 2016. We anticipate that this review will improve the transparency of plan modifications and the reliability of committed cost estimates.
Table 4.5 shows the allocation of committed costs between strategy types. In this review, we have separately identified accommodation and professional services provided by DSC. We refer to these under the “DSC managed” strategy type. Other strategy types include service provider, self-managed and in-kind. In-kind committed costs remain slightly understated.
Table 4.5 Allocation of annualised committed costs by strategy types for approved plans as at 31 December 2015
Service
provider Self-
managed In-kind
DSC managed
Total
Committed costs ($’000) 43,519 8,315 3,652 4,626 60,111
Committed costs (%) 72 14 6 8 100
Table 4.6 shows the total funding, number of plans and the average annualised committed costs for active plans by approval quarter. The 616 plans approved in the December 2015 quarter have an average annualised committed cost of $45,254. This increase in average committed costs is attributable to the high number of first plans and first reviews of high-needs participants in CK.
Page 18 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.6 Funding and average annualised committed costs of approved plans active as at 31 December 20151,2
Approval quarter
Annualised committed
costs
Numbers Average annualised
committed costs
All Funded Percentage
funded All Funded
$’000 $ $
Pre-trial 10,162 332 268 81% 30,608 37,918
Sep-14 2 1 1 100% 1,813 1,813
Dec-14 449 11 11 100% 40,780 40,780
Mar-15 3,624 135 127 94% 26,841 28,532
Jun-15 5,543 229 211 92% 24,206 26,271
Sep-15 12,456 400 367 92% 31,140 33,940
Dec-15 27,876 616 583 95% 45,254 47,815
All 60,111 1,724 1,568 91% 34,867 38,336
1. Committed costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs 2. Using current data - dates of approval may change retrospectively over time.
Table 4.7 shows the evolution of committed cost for the trial to date, split into three disability segments: physical and intellectual disability, psychosocial disorder, and early intervention. The amount shown is the annualised committed funding to active plans at each review date. The large increases at 30 September and 31 December 2015 are due to the commencement of the trial in CK.
Table 4.7 Total active annualised committed cost split by disability segment
Disability segment
30 Sep 2014
31 Dec 2014
31 Mar 2015
30 June 2015
30 Sep 2015
31 Dec 2015
$’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000
Physical, intellectual and other disability
11,293 14,505 15,728 16,537 45,506 57,922
Psychosocial disorder
0 379 667 1,237 1,527 2,005
Early intervention
0 3 15 31 51 185
Total annualised committed cost
11,293 14,887 16,410 17,805 47,084 60,111
The vast majority of committed costs relate to physical, intellectual and other disabilities (96% at 31 December 2015), with the remainder related almost entirely with psychosocial disorders. There have been very few early intervention entrants to date.
Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.6 show the number of active participants and total committed cost in each committed cost band by disability segment. Participants with committed costs less
Page 19 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
than $30,000 make up 74% of the population but contribute only 25% of the total committed cost, while participants with committed costs above $100,000 make up only 8% of the population but contribute 47% of the total committed cost. We will continue to monitor this metric as an indicator of the financial significance of large plans.
Figure 4.5 Number of participants by committed cost band and disability segment as at 31 December 2015
Figure 4.6 Active total annualised committed cost by committed cost band and disability segment as at 31 December 2015
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Nu
mb
er o
f p
arti
cip
ants
Committed cost band
Early intervention
Psychosocial
Physical & intellectual
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
Act
ive
to
tal c
om
mit
ted
co
st (
$'M
)
Committed cost band
Early intervention
Psychosocial
Physical & intellectual
Page 20 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure 4.7 shows the average committed costs of first plans and of updated plans (i.e. not the first plan) in each quarter that these plans were approved. The average costs of these updated plans are shown in front of the average cost of the previous plans (pink columns). The number of plans approved is shown at the foot of each column.
The figure shows that the 190 first plans approved in the December 2015 quarter have significantly higher average committed costs than previous quarters. This result is driven by the entry of new high-needs participants in CK. Comparable to previous quarters, the average committed costs of subsequent plans is 35% higher than the average committed cost of the plans being archived.
Figure 4.7 Average annualised committed cost for first and updated plans1,2,3,4
1. Committed costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs 2. Approved in each quarter – viewed retrospectively using current data 3. Includes all approved plans – funded or unfunded 4. “Transferred plans” includes plans approved before 1 July 2014 in the LSW trial site, and before 1 July
2015 in the CK trial site.
Table 4.8 uses the ISR to compare the average committed costs over time (see Appendix C.3).
We observe that the average committed cost generally decreases as ISR decreases, indicating that ISR is broadly consistent with committed cost as a measure of support needs. The increase in average annualised committed cost since the previous report is concentrated at ISR4 and above.
1,0
10
34 13
6
44 70 17
0
19
0
27 81 13
2
18
2
25
5
43
20
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Tran
sfer
red
Sep
-14
Qtr
Dec
-14
Qtr
Mar
-15
Qtr
Jun
-15
Qtr
Sep
-15
Qtr
Dec
-15
Qtr
Sep
-14
Qtr
Dec
-14
Qtr
Mar
-15
Qtr
Jun
-15
Qtr
Sep
-15
Qtr
Dec
-15
Qtr
First plans Subsequent plans
Ave
rage
co
mm
itte
d c
ost
($
'00
0)
Average committed costs of plan archived
Average committed costs of plan approved
Page 21 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.8 Average committed costs by ISR1
ISR Number of
plans
Average annualised
committed costs
Average committed costs for plans active at 30 Sep 20152
Comparison
$ $ %
9 313 86,000 73,552 117
8 332 43,705 39,245 111
7 476 25,285 20,288 125
6 104 19,062 19,509 98
5 99 12,586 10,528 120
4 175 11,898 11,341 105
3 158 7,184 7,664 94
2 36 4,281 7,861 54
1 16 2,018 22,4343 9
0 15 1,069 1,503 71
Total 1,724 34,867 30,202 115
1. Committed costs may be understated due to the under-reporting of in-kind committed costs 2. Active as at end of quarter – viewed retrospectively using current data. These numbers may differ from
the previous report due to retrospective changes in the underlying data. 3. The support needs of 3 new participants were incorrectly understated as at 30 September 2015. This
has since been resolved.
4.4 Strategies
This section provides analysis of the types of strategies that are being funded to assist participants in achieving their plan goals, and the nature of the outcomes those strategies are intended to achieve. A plan can have multiple strategies. The strategies for any given plan belong to support ‘clusters’, although many strategies can belong to one ‘cluster’. Consequently, there are 7,517 funded strategies.
Table 4.9 is a matrix of the number of funded strategies by WA NDIS My Way support cluster and outcome. We do not include unfunded strategies, even if the plan is funded.
Page 22 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.9 Number of funded strategies by Support Cluster and Outcome for approved plans as at 31 December 2015
Support Cluster
Outcome
Total1
Wel
lbei
ng
Co
mm
un
ity
par
tici
pat
ion
Lear
nin
g n
ew s
kills
Ch
oic
e an
d c
on
tro
l o
ver
life
Sup
po
rtin
g fa
mily
fr
ien
ds
and
car
ers
Safe
ty a
nd
sec
uri
ty
Fam
ily a
nd
rela
tio
nsh
ips
# %
Accommodation 34 3 4 36 4 62 5 148 2
Behaviour Support and Specialist Care
37 2 21 8 14 20 4 106 1
Communication 2 2 4 7 4 2 0 21 0
Daily Living 412 288 381 362 205 162 65 1875 25
Episodic Coordination of Support
13 0 0 5 3 2 0 23 0
Equipment 537 50 163 208 9 312 1 1280 17
Family and Carer Support 60 10 18 14 296 6 96 500 7
Other 0 2 0 1 7 1 2 13 0
Self-management 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Therapy and specialist support 765 41 474 96 8 76 38 1498 20
Wellbeing 406 947 373 155 35 27 110 2053 27
Total
# 2266 1345 1438 892 585 670 321 7517 100
% 30 18 19 12 8 9 4 100 1. These totals include all funded strategies for funded plans. This differs from the comparable measure
used in DSC publications where all strategies (funded and non-funded) are included for funded plans.
We observe that, as was the case in the previous reports, the majority of strategies are related to wellbeing and daily living support clusters. There are also significant numbers of strategies related to equipment, and therapy and specialist support clusters. The remaining clusters have relatively few strategies. The most prevalent outcomes related to these support clusters are wellbeing, community participation and learning new skills.
Table 4.10 and Table 4.11 show an average annualised committed cost by outcome and WA NDIS My Way support cluster. These are average committed cost per funded strategy rather than for whole plans. They are intended to provide an illustration of the costs that are being included in plans and an indication of component price. In this review, we have separately identified accommodation and professional services provided by DSC. These are referred to as “DSC managed” strategies. As they relate primarily to accommodation, these DSC strategies are large in cost but few in number.
Page 23 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 4.10 Average committed cost per funded strategy by Outcome for approved plans as at 31 December 2015
Outcome
Management type
In-kind DSC
managed All Service
provider Self-
managed
$ $ $ $ $
Choice and control over life 22,579 3,738 2,098 73,643 11,612
Community participation 13,603 3,869 2,564 108,973 8,687
Family and relationships 7,818 2,783 963 9,078 4,766
Learning new skills 8,389 2,404 1,850 7,086 5,184
Safety and security 32,706 2,633 3,025 163,869 17,248
Supporting family friends and carers
11,360 3,136 1,518 6,600 5,812
Wellbeing 13,635 3,061 1,660 6,377 6,235
All 14,401 3,091 2,101 69,049 7,997
Average number of strategies per plan
1.8 1.6 1.0 0.0 4.4
Table 4.11 Average committed cost per funded strategy by Support Cluster for approved plans as at 31 December 2015
Support cluster
Management type
In-kind DSC
managed All Service
provider Self-
managed
$ $ $ $ $
Accommodation 122,993 25,321 59,840 211,400 114,328
Behaviour Support and Specialist Care
10,780 2,578 6,076 13,873 8,151
Communication 13,465 2,905 510 8,094
Daily Living 14,887 2,576 3,408 7,656
Episodic Coordination of Support
10,628 2,630 320 5,899
Equipment 2,892 1,096 472 746
Family and Carer Support 11,100 4,775 2,244 7,421
Other 6,726 626 2,503
Therapy and specialist support
5,738 2,378 2,721 6,409 4,052
Wellbeing 11,618 3,657 4,892 8,231
All 14,401 3,091 2,101 69,049 7,997
Average number of strategies per plan
1.8 1.6 1.0 0.0 4.4
Page 24 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
5 DELIVERY
5.1 Payments
Table 5.1 shows the payments made to service providers and self-managed participants in each quarter of the trial.
Table 5.1 Total payments
Payment quarter
Payments to2:
Total1
Service providers
Self-managed participant
$ $ $
Sep-14 1,641,034 436,036 2,077,069
Dec-14 2,349,041 601,780 2,950,821
Mar-15 2,817,701 532,822 3,350,522
Jun-15 3,098,337 630,513 3,728,850
Sep-15 8,295,237 1,118,769 9,414,005
Dec-15 8,882,813 2,077,650 10,960,464
Total2 27,084,162 5,397,570 32,481,732 1. Total does not include in-kind or DSC managed committed costs or strategies. 2. The totals differ from the DSC Quarterly Report due to different criteria for inclusion.
Self-managed payments make up approximately 17% of total payments. This is broadly consistent with the proportion of committed costs that are self-managed (14%). At present, it is not possible to consider in-kind and DSC managed strategy payments in detail because these are not presently captured by the system.
5.2 Provision of commitment
We examine how much of the committed costs approved during planning are paid over the course of the plan. Table 5.2 shows the plan fulfilment statistics. ‘Total committed prorate’ is the amount that was expected to be paid up to 31 December 2015 for all plans, assuming funding is paid evenly over the plan year.
There were 2,161 plans up to 31 December 2015 with either a service provider or self-managed commitment or combination of both. Of the $32.9m committed cost expected to be paid during the trial period so far, $32.5m (99%) has been paid. This percentage is slightly higher than the previous report.
Page 25 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table 5.2 Plan fulfilment statistics for all plans
Service providers Self-managed All1
Number of completed plans 1,565 1,354 2,161
Total paid $27,084,162 $5,397,570 $32,481,732
Total committed prorate2 $26,439,341 $6,437,492 $32,876,833
Plan fulfilment 102% 84% 99% 1. “All” does not include in-kind or DSC managed committed costs or payments 2. Total committed prorate is the amount of committed costs expected to be paid to date assuming that
the payment of commitments occur uniformly over each plan.
The plan fulfilment of service provider strategies is 102%. We expect some deviation from 100% because funding is not paid evenly over the plan year. The plan fulfilment of self-managed strategies is 84%. That is, 16% of self-managed funding has not been spent relative to the average amount of time passed for all plans. It is likely that inevitably some committed costs may not be spent by those self-managing their plans. However, there may also be a rush to spend committed costs towards the end of each plan period, in which case the assumption of uniform payments over the life of a plan may be invalid.
These statistics require careful monitoring moving forward. If the plan fulfilment consistently lies above 100% (i.e., more is paid than is expected based on the committed amount), then participants are using their funding faster than anticipated and reviewing their plan to renew their funding earlier than anticipated.
5.3 Operating expenses
Table 5.3 shows the trial operating expense ratio for the financial year to date. The operating expense ratio is 20% for the 2015/16 financial year to date. This is slightly lower than the figure of 21% for the 2014/15 financial year.
Table 5.3 Operating expense ratio (financial year to date)
2015/16 2014/151
Total payments made2 (including administration costs) 28,129,299 17,220,736
Administration costs:
Direct costs of WA NDIS My Way coordination 3,668,913 2,446,056
Indirect costs including operations and funding 1,041,499 671,995
Corporate overheads 829,739 524,084
Total 5,540,151 3,642,135
Operating expense ratio3 20% 21%
1. For comparability, the 2014/15 results are adjusted to reflect our current view of past experience. 2. Total payments made includes the approximate discharge of in-kind and DSC managed payments
based on a prorate allocation of each participant’s in-kind committed costs, $1,471,339 for 2014/15 and $2,214,679 for 2015/16.
3. Administration costs divided by total payments made. This may differ slightly from the DSC report due to differences in the approximation of in-kind and DSC managed payments.
Page 26 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
6 RELIANCES AND LIMITATIONS
In developing this report Taylor Fry has relied upon historical data and other quantitative and qualitative information supplied by DSC, without audit or independent verification. We have, however, reviewed this information for reasonableness and internal consistency. The accuracy of our results is dependent upon the accuracy and completeness of these underlying data; therefore, any material discrepancies discovered in this data by DSC should be reported to us and the report amended accordingly.
This is the sixth quarterly review carried out for the DSC in relation to the trial. While there has been significant effort expended by both Taylor Fry and DSC to produce and understand the data extracts, there remains a chance that we have misunderstood some aspect or other of the data.
This review relies on forecasts for comparison with experience. Original baseline forecasts were made as part of the bilateral agreement with the Commonwealth prior to implementation of the NDIS My Way Trial. Adjusted baseline forecasts are presented in the “Financial Sustainability Summary Report” by Alan Greenfield, Ash Evans and Kari Wolanski dated 26 October 2015.
These adjusted forecasts relied on the estimations within the Productivity Commission report, and the accuracy of Census 2011 and migration statistics. We cannot assess the accuracy and completeness of the analysis within the Productivity Commission report. Conclusions may differ materially if the analysis underlying the Productivity Commission report is shown to be inaccurate. In any case, all forecasts should be considered highly uncertain at this early stage of scheme development. Furthermore, these forecasts (the adjusted baselines) should not be considered actuarial projections of expected performance – they are not necessarily central estimates. No attempt has been made to provide central estimates of future experience based on the limited experience to date from LSW. The adjusted baselines are an update of the original baselines allowing for known impacts. They provide a baseline for monitoring the evolving experience only.
Over time, as the trial matures, the analysis and review of experience will become more reliable.
Detailed judgements about the analyses, assumptions and results from this actuarial report should be made only after considering the report in its entirety.
This report has been prepared for the DSC for the specific purpose of monitoring the performance of the trial. No reliance should be placed on this report for any other purpose without confirming with us that such a purpose is appropriate.
Page 27 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX A GLOSSARY
Table A.1 provides a glossary of acronyms and terms used in this report.
Table A.1 Glossary
Term Definition
Approval date Date at which a plan is approved
ATSI Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
CALD Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
Consent date Date at which an participant provided consent to perform an eligibility assessment
CK Cockburn-Kwinana
DSC Western Australia Disability Services Commission
Endorsement date Date at which a plan was submitted by a My Way Coordinator for approval. Note: Endorsement also equals approval for unfunded plans and plans less than $10,000
“Expected” or “forecast” numbers of participants and amounts of payments
These are forecasts provided to DSC by the Commonwealth Government, adapted by Taylor Fry for comparing against experience of the trial. See Appendix B
In-kind Provision by mainstream services not funded directly through WA NDIS My Way trial
ISR Individual support rank
LSW Lower South West
NDIA National Disability Insurance Agency
NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme
New entrant Participants that have been assessed as eligible on or after the start of the trial; Lower South West on or after 1 July 2014, Cockburn-Kwinana on or after 1 July 2015.
New plan Plans that are approved and endorsed after 1 July 2014. Includes participants who transferred from the previous project that have had their plan updated.
NPA National Partnership Agreement
The previous project My Way project (June 2012 to 30 June 2014 in LSW and to 30 June 2015 in CK)
Trial WA NDIS My Way trial
Page 28 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX B BACKGROUND
B.1 Introduction
From 1 July 2013 the Commonwealth Government began the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (“NDIS”) with the commencement of various trials around Australia. The agency charged with operating the Scheme is the National Disability Insurance Agency (“NDIA”). On 1 July 2014 the Western Australian Government commenced participation in the NDIS via a two-year trial. The WA NDIS My Way trial (the “trial”) is based on its Local Area Coordinator model. It is managed by the Western Australia Disability Services Commission (“DSC”).
The trial began in the Lower South West (LSW) region on 1 July 2014 and the Cockburn- Kwinana (CK) region on 1 July 2015.
A concurrent trial is also underway in the Perth Hills, based on the Commonwealth NDIS model.
The National Partnership Agreement on Trial of My Way Sites (“NPA”) sets out the terms of the trial and objectives for performance:
People with disability lead lives of their choice
NDIS is a financially sustainable, insurance-based scheme
Greater community inclusion of people with disability.
Through the NPA, DSC has committed to report quarterly in line with the Integrated NDIS Performance Reporting Framework, and to introduce an actuarial approach to ensure that:
Performance is consistent with the expectations used to determine the financial envelope
Meaningful performance reporting and actuarial analysis contributes to a continuous feedback loop that informs decision making throughout the DSC; and
Decision-making is a based on a long-term view.
Taylor Fry has been appointed actuary to the trial. A key requirement of the role as actuary is to carry out an analysis of performance on a quarterly basis.
B.2 The WA NDIS My Way model
The trial builds on the well-established Local Area Coordination model, and will further existing knowledge about how best to support people with disability to:
Exercise more choice and control over their supports and services
Achieve a good life in their local community
Build on natural supports such as friendships, neighbours and local community groups.
New features of the trial include:
Page 29 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Increased focus on early planning
Inclusion of new cohorts, such as participants with psychosocial disorders
Changes to the funding approach (localised decision making and flexible, non-programmatic funding)
Actuarial monitoring of financial sustainability.
B.3 An actuarial approach
In social insurance and insurance schemes – such as workers’ and accident compensation schemes – it is a requirement for actuaries to periodically quantify long-term costs. Understanding the future cost of a scheme and identifying emerging risks ensures that schemes are adequately funded so that they remain solvent. These same tools can also be used to provide insight into client behaviour, outcomes, key drivers of cost, and changing trends that tell a performance story about the scheme, and assist in managing its financial sustainability.
The key features of an actuarial approach are:
Analysis of differences between participants in the scheme and the distribution of support needs and related costs
A long-term view of participants’ behaviour and related costs
An actuarial control cycle that compares actual scheme experience to what was forecast, in order to understand performance.
The first two points are illustrated above. The third point is illustrated in the figure below. An actuarial control cycle begins by valuing scheme costs to set a baseline based on the mix of participants involved with the scheme, and forecasting how scheme costs are expected to evolve over the long term. Periodic monitoring identifies how experience differs from forecast, giving insight into emerging changes to the scheme and their implications for its financial sustainability. The forecasts are periodically updated to reflect the changing realities of the scheme.
Very high functional support needs
High functional support needs
Med functional support needs
Med-low functional support needs
Low functional support needs
Page 30 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
B.4 Baseline forecast and key cost drivers for the trial
Baseline forecasts of numbers of participants and average plan costs were initially produced by the Commonwealth for the purpose of funding the trial, and were updated as part of the “Financial Sustainability Summary Report” by Alan Greenfield, Ash Evans and Kari Wolanski dated 26 October 2015.
Key drivers of scheme costs identified by NDIA are:
Access,
Scope,
Volume,
Price,
Delivery,
Distribution.
Quarterly reports focus on performance in relation to each of these key cost drivers, with a particular focus on participants accessing the trial, their support needs, and how committed plan cost compares to expected cost, based on the distribution of support needs.
B.5 Access
The pathway to participation is shown in Figure B.1. Access to the trial is a key driver of cost. Eligibility has been broadened relative to the previous project. Monitoring changes to the distribution of participants within the trial gives insight into changing needs and future costs.
Page 31 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure B.1 Pathways to participation
B.6 Planning and approval process
Figure B.2 displays the plan design, approval and review process. The scope and volume of funded plans for participants who access the trial, as well as the price of these supports are key drivers of the trial cost. Monitoring the breadth and depth of support needs, and changes in these needs over time provides insight that can be helpful in managing the trial outcomes and financial sustainability. It is also instructive to benchmark plan costs relative to these needs, and to understand how costs themselves are evolving to identify emerging cost pressures.
Ineligible
Eligibility assessment
New
Eligibility appeal
Participant
Found eligible
Existing
Ineligible without appeal
Ineligible with appeal
Ineligibility upheld
Ineligibility overturned
Page 32 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Figure B.2 Plan design, approval and review process
B.7 Delivery
Service delivery is also a key driver of the trial costs, and an important dimension of performance. Delivery of plans can include regular care, temporary help or irregular intervention.
Figure B.3 displays the service delivery process.
Figure B.3 Delivery process
Delegated approval
Approved Plans
Endorsed and
approved
Endorsed and
escalated
Strategy and plan design
Participants
Replanning
MWC assigned
Approved
Review
Organisation
Approved Plans
Service delivery
Self-management
Funds acquittal
Service receipt
Funds acquittal
Page 33 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX C REFERENCE PACKAGE AND INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT RANK
C.1 Introduction
The Reference Package (v1.1) is a tool supplied by NDIA that includes a mapping between support needs and expected committed cost.
We adapt the Reference Package to provide the Individual Support Rank (ISR). The ISR disentangles a participant’s support needs from their expected committed cost. This will help comparisons over time: while participants’ expected committed costs will vary due to external factors such as inflation and funding arrangements, ISR will only vary if the participant’s support needs change. This consistent ISR is particularly useful in the early years of the trial while expectations regarding funding are still developing.
While the reference package tool provided by the NDIA is of questionable validity and is no longer used by the NDIA, Taylor Fry continues to use the support scores in the reference package to determine the ISR. Taylor Fry no longer uses the reference package for expectations. When NDIA provide DSC and Taylor Fry with the updated reference package tool this will be considered for future reports and will enable a better comparison with NDIA data.
C.2 Support scores
The support scores are numerical translations of the support needs discussed in the previous section. The support score categories differ slightly from the support needs matrix in line with the reference package tool supplied by NDIA. These categories may be reviewed when NDIA provide access to the new package reference tool which has been developed.
Currently, the six support score categories are:
Mobility,
Self-care,
General tasks,
Learning,
Interpersonal,
Communication.
This ranking allows simple analysis of depth of support needs by disability. Those with no support score are excluded from this analysis.
Page 34 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table C.1 Support scores
Support score category
Mobility
Self-care
Communication
General tasks
Learning
Interpersonal
Table C.2 Frequency of need
Frequency of need Reference package
support score
Never 0
Less than weekly 1
Weekly (but not daily) 2
1-2 times a day 3
3-5 times a day 4
More than six times a day 5
C.3 Support scores to ISR
The six support scores are rationalised to four for determining the ISR (and average committed cost). That is, the maximum if the general tasks, learning and interpersonal scores becomes a single cognition score.
Table C.3 Mapping support score categories into ISR
Reference package group ISR
At least six times a day for three or more support score categories 9
At least three times a day for three or more support score categories 8
At least daily for three or more support score categories (including Self-care) 7
At least daily for three or more support score categories (excluding Self-care) 6
At least six times a day for two or more support score categories 6
At least three times a day for two or more support score categories 6
At least daily for two or more support score categories (including Self-care) 5
At least daily for two or more support score categories (excluding Self-care) 4
Self-care once a day 4
Mobility, communication or cognition daily 3
Weekly for two or more support score categories 2
Weekly for one support score category 1
Page 35 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX D DISABILITY SEGMENT MAPPING
Table D.1 Disability segment mapping
Disability segment Disabilities
Physical, Intellectual and Other Disability
Acquired Brain Injury
Amputations (Single/Multiple)
Attention Deficit (hyperactive) Disorder
Autism and Related Disorders
Birth Trauma/Injury
Cerebral Palsy
CHARGE Syndrome
Corneal Disorders/Defects
Cornelia de Lange Syndrome
Deafblindness
Deafness/Hearing Loss
Dementia
Developmental Delay
Down Syndrome
Epilepsy
Fragile X Syndrome
Glaucoma
Global Developmental Delay
Hemiplegia
Huntington’s Chorea
Intellectual Disability
Meningitis/Encephalitis
Microcephaly
Motor Neurone
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscular Dystrophy
Other Chromosomal Abnormalities
Other Congenital Malformations or Deformations
Other Injury/Poison/External Cause
Other Neurological
Other Physical Disorders
Other Sensory/Speech Disorders
Other Sight Loss
Parkinson's Disease
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Retinal Disorders or Defects
Page 36 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Disability segment Disabilities
Specific learning - other than Intellectual/ADD
Speech Impediment and Other Speech Difficulties
Spina Bifida
Spinal Cord Injury - Paraplegia
Spinal Cord Injury - Quadriplegia
Spinal Cord Injury - Tetraplegia
Stroke
Surgery/Medical Complications
Williams Syndrome
Psychosocial disorder
Bipolar Affective Disorder
Child/Adolescent Onset Psych Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Other Psychiatric Disorders
Schizophrenia
Early intervention New entrants classified as Early Intervention
Page 37 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX E PARTICIPANTS BY AGE, SEX AND DISABILITY
Table E.1 Participants by age group
Disability type (primary) Number of participants
Total 2058
0-14 767
15-24 369
25-44 417
45-64 493
65+ 12
Table E.2 Participants by disability type
Disability type (primary) Number of participants
Total 2058
Autism and related disorders 480
Intellectual disability 727
Neurological 153
Global developmental delay 14
Cerebral palsy 58
Sensory/speech 89
Physical 234
Other 303
Page 38 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Table E.3 Primary disability by sex and age as at 31 December 20151
Primary disability All
Sex Age
Mal
e
Fem
ale
0-1
4
15
-24
25
-44
45
-64
65
+
# %
Physical, Intellectual and Other Disabilities
Acquired Brain Injury 48 2 31 17 2 2 10 31 3
Amputations (Single/Multiple) 17 1 8 9 0 1 3 13 0
Autism and Related Disorders 479 23 381 98 346 107 21 4 1
Cerebral Palsy 58 3 40 18 30 13 10 5 0
Corneal Disorders/Defects 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Down Syndrome 4 0 4 0 2 1 1 0 0
Cornelia de Lange Syndrome 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0
Deafblindness 8 0 2 6 3 0 2 3 0
Deafness/Hearing Loss 31 2 20 11 15 0 3 13 0
Dementia 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Developmental Delay 77 4 56 21 77 0 0 0 0
Epilepsy 4 0 1 3 1 0 1 2 0
Fragile X Syndrome 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
Glaucoma 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0
Global Developmental Delay 10 0 7 3 10 0 0 0 0
Hemiplegia 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0
Huntington’s Chorea 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0
Intellectual Disability 718 35 428 290 175 210 224 108 1
Meningitis/Encephalitis 2 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0
Motor Neurone 6 0 3 3 0 0 1 5 0
Multiple Sclerosis 56 3 13 43 0 0 13 43 0
Muscular Dystrophy 8 0 8 0 1 2 3 2 0
Other Congenital Malformations or Deformations
1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Other Injury/Poison/External Cause 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Other Neurological 65 3 32 33 10 6 15 33 1
Other Physical Disorders 119 6 52 67 19 8 15 73 4
Other Sight Loss 29 1 12 17 11 0 3 15 0
Parkinson's Disease 5 0 4 1 0 0 0 5 0
Retinal Disorders or Defects 16 1 9 7 3 0 3 10 0
Specific learning - other than Intellectual/ADD
4 0 3 1 3 0 1 0 0
Speech Impediment and Other Speech 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Page 39 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
Primary disability All
Sex Age
Mal
e
Fem
ale
0-1
4
15
-24
25
-44
45
-64
65
+
# %
Difficulties
Spina Bifida 15 1 7 8 5 4 5 1 0
Spinal Cord Injury - Paraplegia 26 1 20 6 0 4 11 10 1
Spinal Cord Injury - Quadriplegia 5 0 5 0 0 0 3 2 0
Spinal Cord Injury - Tetraplegia 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Stroke 7 0 4 3 0 0 0 6 1
Surgery/Medical Complications 3 0 1 2 0 0 0 3 0
Sub-total 1835 89 1156 679 721 358 349 395 12
Psychosocial Disorders
Bipolar Affective Disorder 31 2 11 20 0 1 12 18 0
Child/Adolescent Onset Psych Disorder 3 0 2 1 1 2 0 0 0
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Other Psychiatric Disorders 82 4 23 59 0 6 21 55 0
Schizophrenia 60 3 38 22 0 2 34 24 0
Sub-total 177 9 74 103 1 11 67 98 0
Early Intervention
Autism and Related Disorders 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Developmental Delay 38 2 23 15 38 0 0 0 0
Global Developmental Delay 4 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 0
Intellectual Disability 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0
Other Sight Loss 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Sub-total 46 2 29 17 45 0 1 0 0
Total
# 2058 1259 799 767 369 417 493 12
% 100 61 39 37 18 20 24 1
1. Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding
Page 40 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX F BASELINE FORECAST SUMMARY
Table F.1 Baseline forecasts
Month ending
Total
Participants Total
committed cost
Average committed
costs Payments
Jul-14 461 17,686,072 38,404 1,400,313
Aug-14 512 19,450,713 37,969 1,547,366
Sep-14 564 21,215,355 37,614 1,694,420
Oct-14 616 22,979,996 37,318 1,841,473
Nov-14 668 24,744,637 37,068 1,988,526
Dec-14 719 26,509,279 36,854 2,135,580
Jan-15 771 28,273,920 36,669 2,282,633
Feb-15 823 30,038,561 36,507 2,429,687
Mar-15 875 31,803,203 36,365 2,576,740
Apr-15 926 33,567,844 36,238 2,723,794
May-15 978 35,332,485 36,125 2,870,847
Jun-15 1,030 37,097,127 36,023 3,017,901
Jul-15 2,069 78,789,829 38,084 6,362,300
Aug-15 2,208 83,674,297 37,888 6,769,339
Sep-15 2,348 88,558,766 37,715 7,176,378
Oct-15 2,488 93,443,235 37,561 7,583,417
Nov-15 2,627 98,327,703 37,424 7,990,456
Dec-15 2,767 103,212,172 37,301 8,397,495
Jan-16 2,907 108,096,641 37,189 8,804,534
Feb-16 3,046 112,981,109 37,088 9,211,573
Mar-16 3,186 117,865,578 36,995 9,618,612
Apr-16 3,326 122,750,047 36,911 10,025,651
May-16 3,465 127,634,515 36,833 10,432,690
Jun-16 3,605 132,518,984 36,761 10,839,729
Page 41 WA NDIS My Way Quarterly Actuarial Review 31 December 2015
APPENDIX G ACCESS AND PLAN TIMING
Table G.1 Time elapsed between consent and eligibility decision
Consent quarter
Eligibility requests
Average days
Median days
Minimum days
Maximum days
Sep-14 Decision made 42 39 19 2 287
Outstanding 0 0 0
Dec-14 Decision made 100 27 16 0 116
Outstanding 0 0 0
Mar-15 Decision made 73 30 12 0 259
Outstanding 0 0 0
Jun-15 Decision made 82 33 19 0 187
Outstanding 0 0 0
Sep-15 Decision made 174 30 18 0 163
Outstanding 5 127 120 98 170
Dec-15 Decision made 161 15 10 0 83
Outstanding 14 41 39 13 90
Total Decision made 632 27 15 0 287
Outstanding 19 63 50 13 170
Table G.2 Time from eligibility to plan approval for new entrants
Eligibility Quarter
Number of first plans for new entrants
Average days
Median days
Minimum days
Maximum days
Sep-14 25 79 77 33 168
Dec-14 94 34 14 0 183
Mar-15 75 80 68 10 269
Jun-15 64 85 87 11 201
Sep-15 98 78 83 4 161
Dec-15 20 51 57 6 84
Total 376 67 68 0 269