Anja Pich is a commercial lawyer and the Managing Lawyer at Lawpath. She practises across all areas of commercial law and advises businesses of every size, from first-time founders to established companies, on their legal, regulatory and commercial needs.
To start an occupational therapy business in Australia, you need registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through AHPRA, a business structure and ABN, professional indemnity insurance, and a clear plan for how you’ll get paid. Most private occupational therapy work is funded through the NDIS, Medicare or private clients, and that choice shapes almost everything else.
Here’s the honest bit. You trained to help people regain independence, not to pick a company structure or read an insurance schedule. Going out on your own as an independent occupational therapist is a big step, and the clinical work is the part you’re good at. The business admin is the part most new practitioners quietly put off until a client, an auditor or the tax office forces the issue.
So let’s break it into the decisions that actually matter, in the order they matter, and leave the rest.
- Registration comes first. You must hold current registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through AHPRA before you treat a single private client.
- Insurance is not optional. The Board requires professional indemnity cover for registration, so you need a policy in place from day one.
- Funding drives your model. NDIS, Medicare, DVA and private pay each have different rules. The NDIS sets a price limit of $193.99 an hour for occupational therapy under its 2025-26 arrangements.
- Most start as sole traders. It’s cheap and fast, but a company gives you limited liability once you hire staff or take on bigger contracts.
- The privacy rules catch people out. As a health provider you’re bound by the Privacy Act 1988 even if you turn over under $3 million, which trips up new practices constantly.
Can occupational therapists start their own business in Australia?
Yes. Any occupational therapist with current AHPRA registration can run a private practice, and plenty do. Demand is high and the sector is short on practitioners, so there’s real room for a new occupational therapy business to fill a gap in its area.
One correction worth making early, because older guides get it wrong. You register with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through AHPRA. The Occupational Therapy Council only sits in the picture if you studied overseas and need your qualifications assessed for eligibility. If you trained at an Australian or New Zealand program, you apply to the Board directly.
Being a great clinician and running a viable practice are two different skills. The good news is the second one is mostly a sequence of decisions, not a talent you’re born with. Work through them once and the structure holds for years.
How do you register as an occupational therapist?
Registration is the licence that lets you practise at all, so it comes before the business. You need to have completed an occupational therapy qualification accredited by the Occupational Therapy Council, then hold general registration with the Board through AHPRA and renew it each year.
Two registration standards matter most when you’re setting up on your own:
- Professional indemnity insurance. The Board requires you to hold, or be covered by, adequate professional indemnity cover for the whole scope of your practice. As an employee you’re usually covered by your employer. The day you go private, that cover is yours to arrange.
- Continuing professional development. You need to keep meeting your CPD requirements and recency-of-practice standard. Running the business is no excuse to let clinical hours slide.
Sort the insurance before you see a paying client, not after. A gap in cover is the kind of thing nobody notices until a complaint lands, and by then it’s too late to backdate a policy.
Do you need a business plan to start?
You need a plan, not a 40-page document. Most solo OTs over-think this. A one-page plan that answers four questions will carry you further than a polished report nobody reads again.
- Who are your clients? Paediatric, aged care, hand therapy, mental health, home modifications. Pick a focus rather than trying to serve everyone.
- How will they pay? NDIS, Medicare, DVA, private. This drives your pricing and paperwork, so decide it early.
- What’s your break-even? How many billable hours a week cover your costs. For a mobile practice that number is low, which is the whole point of starting lean.
- Where will clients come from? Name your first three referral sources before you open, not after.
If you’re applying for finance or a lease, a lender will want more detail. For getting started on your own, the one-pager is enough to keep you honest.
What business structure should an occupational therapy business use?
Your business structure sets how you pay tax, who carries the debts, and how much paperwork you file. For a new occupational therapy business, it usually comes down to sole trader or company. Here’s how they compare.
| Structure | Best for | Liability | Setup and admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | Solo clinicians starting out, mobile or telehealth work | You’re personally liable for all debts and claims | Cheapest and fastest. One ABN linked to your own tax file number |
| Company | Hiring staff, signing a lease, bidding for bigger contracts | Limited liability. The company is a separate legal entity | More setup and ongoing ASIC obligations. Needs a director ID and its own ABN |
| Partnership | Two or more OTs going in together | Partners share the debts and each other’s liabilities | Moderate. A partnership agreement is strongly advised |
Most people start as a sole trader because it’s quick and costs almost nothing. That’s a reasonable call for a solo caseload. The trade-off is that there’s no legal wall between you and the business, so a debt or a claim reaches your personal assets.
Once you hire your first therapist or sign a commercial lease, a company structure usually earns its keep. It caps your personal exposure and looks more credible to referrers and funders. Note the two extra steps: every director now needs a director ID before the company is set up, and a company needs its own ABN.
One point that catches people switching later: you can’t carry your sole trader ABN across to a company. The company is a separate entity and needs a fresh ABN, and your old one gets cancelled once you stop trading as a sole trader. Plan the switch around your financial year so your invoicing stays clean.
Whichever way you go, you’ll need an ABN to invoice and claim, and a company if you choose that route. You’ll also need to register for GST once your turnover hits $75,000, which a growing practice reaches faster than expected.
How will your occupational therapy business get paid?
This is the question that decides whether your occupational therapy business works, and it’s the one most startup guides skip. Who pays you, and under what rules, shapes your pricing, your paperwork and your cash flow. In Australia, private OT income comes from four main places.
The NDIS
For most private OTs, the NDIS is the biggest single source of work. It also sets the price. Under the 2025-26 NDIS Pricing Arrangements, occupational therapy has a national price limit of $193.99 an hour, and you can’t charge a plan-managed or agency-managed client above it.
Here’s the decision that trips up new practices. You don’t have to be a registered NDIS provider to work with NDIS clients. You can see self-managed and plan-managed participants as an unregistered provider, which skips the audit and the registration cost. You only need full NDIS registration to work with agency-managed participants, who are a smaller slice of the market.
Most solo OTs start unregistered, build a caseload of self and plan-managed clients, and register later if the numbers justify the audit. Starting unregistered is not cutting corners. It’s the sensible first step for a lot of practices.
Medicare, DVA and private health
Beyond the NDIS, three more funding streams are worth setting up for:
- Medicare. Clients on a chronic disease management plan from their GP can claim a rebate for a limited number of allied health sessions each year. You register for a Medicare provider number to bill these.
- DVA. Veterans with the right card can access OT services funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, billed at DVA’s own fee schedule.
- Private health and private pay. Clients with extras cover can claim part of your fee, and some will simply pay out of pocket. Here you set your own rate, though the NDIS price is a useful anchor for what the market expects.
A practice that takes all four streams is more resilient than one riding on NDIS funding alone. Policy and price limits shift, so a spread of funding sources protects your income when one of them changes.
Clinic, mobile or telehealth: which model fits?
How you deliver therapy changes your costs more than almost any other choice. You don’t need a fitted-out clinic to start an occupational therapy business, and committing to a lease too early is a common way to burn cash before the caseload exists.
| Model | Upfront cost | Good fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | Low. A car, a kit and good scheduling | You see NDIS and home-based clients in their own environment |
| Telehealth | Lowest. Software and a private space | You cover rural clients or offer follow-ups and reviews remotely |
| Clinic-based | High. Lease, fit-out, equipment | You have a steady caseload and need specialised equipment on site |
A lot of new OTs start mobile or run telehealth, keep overheads near zero, and move into a clinic only once the demand is proven. You can also mix them. Home visits for assessments, telehealth for reviews, a hired room one day a week for clients who need it.
When you do take a space, you’ll sign a commercial lease agreement. Read the term, the exit clause and who pays for outgoings before you commit. A lease is often the biggest fixed cost a young practice carries.
How do occupational therapy businesses find clients?
Through referrers, mostly. This is where occupational therapy marketing works differently from most small businesses. Your clients rarely find you on Google and book in cold. They’re sent to you by someone who already has their trust.
For a new occupational therapy business, your first caseload almost always comes from a handful of referral relationships:
- NDIS support coordinators and plan managers. They connect participants with therapists every week. A few good relationships here can fill a calendar on their own.
- GPs and specialists. They write the chronic disease management plans that bring Medicare-funded clients to you.
- Other allied health providers. Physios, speech pathologists and psychologists refer the work that sits outside their scope.
So put your energy into being easy to refer to before you spend a dollar on ads. A clear one-page service summary, fast response times and reliable reports do more for a young practice than any social media plan. A simple website and a Google Business listing help people check you’re real, but the referral network is what fills the diary.
One compliance note. You collect and send sensitive client information through these referral channels, so handle it under your privacy obligations rather than firing off details over personal email.
What legal and compliance documents does an OT business need?
Handling clients’ health information and, often, their homes and staff means an occupational therapy business carries more compliance weight than a typical small business. These are the essentials.
- Professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Indemnity cover is required for registration. Public liability matters the moment you work in clients’ homes or have people visit a clinic.
- A privacy policy. You collect sensitive health data, so you need a policy that sets out how you store, use and dispose of it, and how you handle a data breach.
- Employment or contractor agreements. The day you bring in another OT or an admin person, a written agreement sets the terms and protects both sides.
- A commercial lease agreement. For any clinic or room you rent, in writing, with the outgoings and exit terms clear.
- Work health and safety basics. You owe a duty of care to staff and clients, which matters as much on a home visit as in a clinic.
You can set most of these up yourself through Lawpath’s legal document templates rather than paying for each one from scratch. Keeping them in one place also means you’re not hunting for the right version when a funder or an auditor asks.
What trips up new occupational therapy practices
Some problems show up again and again once a practice starts billing and hiring. None of them are hard to avoid if you know they’re coming.
Assuming the small-business privacy exemption applies to you. Most businesses under $3 million in turnover sit outside the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Health service providers don’t. The moment you hold client health information, the Act and the Australian Privacy Principles apply to you regardless of size. A lot of new OTs don’t know this, and a generic privacy policy copied off another site won’t cover it.
Not spelling out privacy when you use contractors. If you engage other OTs as contractors, the responsibility for client health data doesn’t just move to them. Your contractor agreement needs to say who holds the records, who responds to an access request, and who handles a data breach. Without that, a breach by a contractor is still your problem.
Leaving GST registration too late. You must register for GST once turnover passes $75,000, and a busy practice gets there quickly. Register late and you can be left owing GST you never charged your clients.
Treating registration as a one-off. AHPRA registration, insurance and CPD all renew. Diarise the dates. A lapsed registration means you can’t legally practise, and the business stops with it.
How much does it cost to start an occupational therapy business?
Less than you’d think, if you start lean. A mobile or telehealth practice can open for a few thousand dollars. The main early costs are AHPRA registration and CPD, professional indemnity and public liability insurance, an ABN (free) or company registration, practice management software, and basic assessment equipment.
The big cost is a clinic lease and fit-out, which is exactly why so many OTs delay it. Keep your overheads low while you build the caseload, and let the revenue decide when you take on fixed costs. With the NDIS price at $193.99 an hour, the maths on a modest caseload adds up faster than most new practitioners expect.
Frequently asked questions
How do I start my own occupational therapy business?
Register with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through AHPRA, arrange professional indemnity insurance, choose a business structure and get an ABN, then decide how you’ll be funded. Most new OTs start as a sole trader doing mobile or telehealth work before taking on a clinic.
Can occupational therapists work privately in Australia?
Yes. Any OT with current AHPRA registration can run a private practice. OTs work across community health, hospitals, clients’ homes and telehealth, and demand for private services is strong.
Do I need to be a registered NDIS provider?
Not to start. You can see self-managed and plan-managed NDIS participants as an unregistered provider. Full NDIS registration is only required to work with agency-managed participants, and many solo OTs register later once their caseload justifies the audit.
How much can an occupational therapist charge?
For NDIS clients, the 2025-26 price limit for occupational therapy is $193.99 an hour, and you can’t bill plan-managed or agency-managed clients above it. For private and privately insured clients you set your own fee, with the NDIS rate as a common benchmark.
What insurance does an occupational therapy business need?
Professional indemnity insurance is required by the Board for registration. Public liability cover is strongly advised once you work in clients’ homes or have people visit a clinic. Many OTs hold both under one allied health policy.
Should I be a sole trader or a company?
Start as a sole trader if you’re a solo clinician and want low cost and simple admin. Move to a company once you hire staff, sign a lease or want limited liability. Remember a company needs its own ABN and a director ID, and you can’t transfer your sole trader ABN across.
Does the Privacy Act apply to a small OT practice?
Yes. The usual exemption for businesses under $3 million turnover does not apply to health service providers. As an OT holding client health information, you must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles whatever your size.
Are occupational therapists in demand in Australia?
Yes. OT is listed as a skills-shortage occupation, with demand driven by the NDIS, an ageing population and growing awareness of early intervention. A new practice usually has room to build a caseload.
How do I become a self-employed occupational therapist?
Keep your AHPRA registration current, take out your own professional indemnity insurance, get an ABN, and line up your first referral sources. Most independent OTs start as a sole trader doing mobile or telehealth work, then formalise into a company as the caseload grows.
Start your occupational therapy business the simple way
If the admin feels like a wall, that’s normal. Every OT who now runs a busy practice started exactly where you are, staring at the same list. You don’t have to get it all perfect on day one. You just have to get the first few things right, in order.
Lawpath puts the business side in one place: register your ABN or company, build your privacy policy and client agreements from templates, and talk to a lawyer when you need one, all on the one platform. It’s the shortcut past the paperwork so you can get back to the clients.
Register your occupational therapy business with Lawpath today.
