Can I offer participants incentives to use my services?

Question of the day: I am a service provider, can I offer an incentive, like money, or a gift card to convince a participant to use my service or support?

One thing we see often is new providers offering gifts or incentives for participants to sign up with or engage with their services. Is this allowed? Is it ethical?

The quick answer is NO. The long answer is outlined in the following post! Get a cup of tea, you might need it!

The NDIA states that providers (both registered and unregistered) are not allowed to engage in “Sharp Practices”

What does "sharp practice" mean?

The NDIA Code of Conduct states the following:

People with disability expect that NDIS providers will not participate in or promote sharp practices

This includes not:

a. providing services or expending funds contrary to a person with disability’s approved plan

b. asking for or accepting any additional fees for providing the service

c. offering inducements or rewards that have no particular link to a person’s NDIS plan and that could be perceived to encourage people to take up or continue with your organisation or a particular service option.

So, what does that mean?

That means that providers cannot offer incentives to sign up with their service. This includes things like gift cards, money, tickets, gifts, or other items that coerce people into using their services.

It is also highly unethical for a provider to use incentives to get referrals funnelled towards them. This means, when one provider gives financial reward or gifts to another provider and in return, that provider convinces participants to use the gift givers support or service.

Some examples:

A Support Coordinator might offer a therapist $100 for every referral they make to back to them, that results in somebody signing up to their support.

A therapist might offer a Support Coordinator a gift for every participant that they refer to their services, which results in ongoing service delivery.

Why is this against the guidelines (and unethical)?

Providers have an obligation to provide high level support and service to each participant, without offering incentives. They have an obligation to do that within the scope of the code of conduct and practice standards laid down by the NDIS. By offering your services based on rewards and incentives, you are acting against the participants right to exercise full choice and control over their supports. You are also not providing full transparency when you operate this way.

For example, If a participant is struggling with money, and you a $200 financial reward to sign up with their service, the participant may be more focused on the benefits that $200 may provide them (as we all would) and potentially choose you over a more appropriate service based on the fact that they can now buy groceries this week, instead of it being based simply on the quality and suitability of the support you offer.

I𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚:

You buy an item/engage a service because you read amazing reviews about it on Facebook. You then find out that all those reviews were paid for by the company and the people who left the reviews, either have not used the product/service or were sent free products and asked to provide a positive review.

Your right and ability to make a fully informed choice, free of influence, has now been removed because the information that was provided to you was false, or influenced by the company that owns the product/service.

Great providers will always present clear, concise, transparent information. Great providers will never use coercive influence to try and get participants to engage their services.

Your personal or business reputation can also suffer damage when you use financial coercion to gain more participants. Use your worth ethic, values, and skills to show participants and other providers that you are an outstanding support!

Article adapted and sourced with permission from: http://www.ethicalcaringgroup.com.au