How BellaAssist can be funded through your NDIS plan

BellaAssist costs $499 a year. Funding decisions always rest with the NDIA, and whether a plan can cover BellaAssist depends on that participant's own plan and their disability-related support needs. With that said, BellaAssist has consistently been funded through the plans of participants who have signed up, and most have paid nothing out of pocket.

The most common pathway to date has been Low-Cost Assistive Technology, line item 03_222100911_0124_1_1, Communication or Cognitive Support. At $499, BellaAssist sits within the $1,500 Low-Cost AT threshold. Confirm the current requirements with the plan manager or the NDIA before claiming, since a quote or a plan variation may be needed depending on the plan.

Some participants without specific Assistive Technology funding have claimed through Consumables within Core supports. Proposed changes to the definitions of supports would narrow Consumables to health-specific items, which would close that route for software, so we would not plan around it. Self-managed participants have claimed under Self-Management and Plan Management line items.

Whichever pathway the plan uses, the process is the same: BellaAssist sends the Plan Manager (or the participant directly, if self-managed) a proper NDIS-compliant invoice along with a personalised Reasonable and Necessary justification.

• s34(1)(aa), needs arising directly from an eligible impairment. BellaAssist provides cognitive and communication support to navigate the NDIS. The supporting evidence must connect the requested support directly to an impairment for which the participant meets the disability or early intervention requirements.
• s34(1)(c), value for money. BellaAssist is priced at $499 per participant per year. Formal Functional Capacity Assessments range from approximately $850 to $3,000. Support Coordinator preparation time for a plan review is commonly 6 hours or more. BellaAssist supports the value-for-money case by providing structured evidence preparation at a fraction of the cost of the equivalent professional time.
• Functional capacity under s9B. A person's functional capacity is their ability to undertake an activity without assistance, or only with commonly used assistive technology or modifications (and age-appropriate assistance for a child), in a context that excludes environmental and personal circumstances as far as possible.
• Australian infrastructure. The application, database and participant documents are held in Australian regions. Some account emails are sent through Postmark, which may process the recipient address and the message in the United States, as the privacy policy states.