KB Type: Concept
Domain Area: Billing/Practice
Confidence: Provisional — requires Andrew's research to verify
Depth Hint: Standard
Version: 1.0 — 2026-04-25
Status: Provisional

Provisional article — seeded from NbLM. Requires Andrew's research to verify and expand.

Community-based practitioner transport in the NDIS is billed using two distinct item codes under Support Category 07. Activity Based Transport (07_501_0106_6_3) covers the direct support time when a practitioner physically accompanies a participant in the community. Provider Travel Non-Labour Costs (07_799_0106_6_3) covers the actual out-of-pocket expenses incurred during that accompaniment — kilometres, tolls, and parking. Both codes apply to Level 1 Support Connection, Level 2 Coordination of Supports, and Psychosocial Recovery Coaching (PRC) under registration group R106. Support Coordinators who also deliver PRC become direct supports, entitling them to both codes when physically accompanying participants. Standard Support Coordination is an indirect support — no community accompaniment, no transport claims. Precise use of both codes is essential: AI-generated pricing estimates are unreliable and must always be verified against the current published NDIS Pricing Arrangements.

The fundamental distinction governing Activity Based Transport eligibility is whether a support is classified as direct or indirect. Indirect supports, such as standard Support Coordination, involve the practitioner working on behalf of the participant — making phone calls, reviewing service agreements, liaising with providers — without necessarily being physically present. These indirect activities do not generate claimable travel costs because the practitioner is not accompanying the participant.

Direct supports, by contrast, involve the practitioner working alongside the participant in community settings. Psychosocial Recovery Coaching is explicitly a direct support — the recovery coach attends appointments with the participant, practices social skills in situ, and builds community connections through physical presence. This direct delivery model generates legitimate travel costs that the NDIS recognises and funds through the Activity Based Transport item code.

NDIS transport billing for community accompaniment uses two codes, both under registration group R106 and Support Category 07:

07_501_0106_6_3 — Activity Based Transport (the direct support time):

Bills for the practitioner's time spent accompanying the participant in a community setting. Structure:

07_799_0106_6_3 — Provider Travel Non-Labour Costs (km, tolls, parking):

Bills for the actual out-of-pocket travel expenses incurred during the accompaniment. Structure:

A common error involves applying Outcome Domain 8 (Choice and Control) instead of Outcome Domain 6 for either code. The variants 07_501_0106_8_3 and 07_799_0106_8_3 do not exist in the current NDIS Support Catalogue and will result in claim rejection.

To ensure compliance and transparent billing, the toolkit's service agreements and schedules of support must explicitly detail Activity Based Transport codes. Participants must genuinely consent to these specific non-labour charges, understanding that they apply only when the practitioner physically accompanies them in community-based direct support activities. Service agreements should distinguish between:

This documentation creates an auditable chain linking the support type, the item code used, and the participant's informed consent.

RS-06 research (T3) adds a specific and important practical application. Strategically transitioning a highly anxious participant from a standard Disability Support Worker to a PRC for transportation and appointment support is fully compliant and, the research notes, "a highly effective utilisation of the NDIS Pricing Arrangements." This use case is valid because PRC is officially classified as a direct support (Outcome 6), which authorises ABT claiming for accompanying participants in the community.

This means coordinators who hold both SC and PRC qualifications can legitimately pivot to the PRC role when accompanying anxious participants to appointments — billing 07_501_0106_6_3 for the support time — provided the case notes document the coaching purpose and the participant's genuine consent.

RS-06 research (T5) introduces a billing scenario that directly affects ABT-adjacent claiming. When a participant's Category 07 budget is fully locked (Stated) and a provider cannot claim the standard non-labour travel code (07_799_0106_6_3), the PAPL 2025-26 V1.1 validates an alternative: 01_799_0106_1_1 from the participant's Core (Category 01) budget.

Note the distinction:

RS-09 research (T4) clarifies that ABT eligibility is not a billing rule appended to specific roles — it is a structural consequence of which NDIS Outcome Domain governs the support. This reframes the direct/indirect distinction from a descriptor to an architectural driver embedded in item code structure.

Every NDIS item code encodes an Outcome Domain in its fifth segment:

Because Outcome 6 is definitionally community-based — it funds participation in the community — the NDIA treats supports under this domain as direct by nature. A provider delivering Outcome 6 supports is funded to be physically present with the participant. Outcome 8 supports, by contrast, are coordination and system navigation — inherently desk-based activities.

The structural implication is that ABT eligibility cannot be claimed or assumed — it must be read from the item code anatomy. A practitioner wearing both coordination (Outcome 8) and coaching (Outcome 6) hats in a single session cannot split the session to claim ABT for one part and coordination for the other. The billing code chosen for the session determines both the support type and the transport entitlement. Practitioners and billing systems must apply the discipline of billing the correct code for the work delivered — not the most convenient code.

Coordinators taking on PRC roles must properly document when they physically accompany participants in the community versus when they perform indirect administrative tasks. To satisfy auditors that Activity Based Transport was legitimately used for a direct coaching support rather than an indirect coordination task, case notes should explicitly record:

This evidence trail prevents claims from being flagged during payment assurance reviews.

Provisional — requires Andrew's research to verify specific pricing and code details.

entity: activity-based-transport
type: Concept
domain: Billing
confidence: Provisional
links: [[concepts/psychosocial-recovery-coach]] via enables
links: [[concepts/item-code-anatomy]] via references