Allied health software Australia: 7 platforms compared for Medicare, NDIS and HICAPS claiming

Key takeaways

Allied health software Australia divides on claiming, because every platform here already schedules and charts competently.

Nookal is the only platform of the seven that reaches all five Australian payer channels.

Splose builds the NDIS payment request file the myplace portal imports, while Cliniko, Coreplus and Zanda only invoice.

All seven platforms claim Medicare and DVA, so those two channels make a poor tie-breaker.

Australia has no single WorkCover, so an injury-referral practice needs a platform that reaches its own state scheme.

Buying allied health software in Australia is a claiming decision. Every platform in this comparison already schedules, charts and invoices competently, so the feature list settles very little.

Pick one that stops at invoicing, and the work moves to your front desk. Someone retypes patient, provider and referral details into a payer portal every afternoon. That cost never appears on a pricing page.

This guide compares all seven: Nookal, Splose, Cliniko, Coreplus, Zanda, Pabau and Zedmed. We checked each one against the five channels, using its own site and help documentation, then built the Claims-Readiness Matrix below.

At a glance: Claiming coverage separates the seven platforms

Counted as bars, the spread is wider than any feature comparison suggests.

Single-discipline practices can narrow further. We compare platforms for physiotherapy practices and for podiatry practices in separate roundups.

The breakdown below goes platform by platform, widest claims coverage first. That order isn’t a verdict on which is “best”, it just means the field narrows as you read down. Jump straight to the one that matches your payer mix.

1. Nookal covers Medicare, NDIS, health funds and workers’ comp

Nookal has the broadest Australian claiming coverage of any platform in the Claims-Readiness Matrix. It claims Medicare and DVA natively, then reaches NDIS and the state injury schemes through HICAPS Digital Claims.

Nookal’s support documentation names the schemes rather than gesturing at them. HICAPS Digital Claims, formerly LanternPay, covers the Transport Accident Commission of Victoria, WorkSafe Victoria and WorkCover Queensland. Separate articles cover icare and NDIS agency-managed, plan-managed and global plan-managed claims.

That last distinction is worth reading twice. NDIS plan-managed claims go to the plan manager, while agency-managed claims go to the NDIA. Nookal documents both paths separately, and on a successful claim the paid amount posts to the invoice automatically.

The trade-off is cost per claim. Nookal charges Medicare claim lodgement from AUD $0.10 per claim on top of the subscription. Multiple claims for one client can be combined to reduce that cost.

Pricing

Nookal publishes Australian dollar prices that exclude GST, and charges claim lodgement separately. A practice submitting a few hundred Medicare claims a month should add that line to the comparison.

2. Splose builds the NDIS file the myplace portal imports

Splose fits an NDIS-heavy caseload better than any other platform in this comparison. It sells itself as practice management software for allied health professionals rather than a general medical system. The NDIS tooling is where that shows.

Splose’s NDIS bulk upload report creates a bulk payment request file for import into the myplace provider portal. Splose states the file is compliant with PACE. Batch invoicing feeds the same report, so a month of community visits claims in one pass.

A separate HICAPS integration handles NDIA-managed participants. Splose’s own wording is that HICAPS puts claims processing for NDIA-managed participants directly in your hands. Claim status stays visible in real time.

Medicare and DVA run through Tyro Health, as they do almost everywhere else. Splose names no state workers’ compensation scheme, so an injury-referral practice should look at Nookal. NDIS-funded work concentrates in occupational therapy software shortlists for exactly this reason.

Pricing

Splose charges per practitioner and gives every non-practitioner role a free seat. That suits a practice with more admin staff than clinicians. Prices are in Australian dollars and exclude GST.

3. Cliniko claims Medicare and DVA without a terminal

Cliniko is cloud-based practice management software for allied health practices, covering scheduling, treatment notes, invoicing and online bookings. It suits a solo or small team billing Medicare bulk bills without a terminal.

On claiming, Cliniko routes Medicare, DVA and private health fund claims through Tyro Health. Its own connected-app page is direct about it. Those claims process online, with no terminal required, and private fund claims go through HealthPoint.

NDIS is where the wording matters. Cliniko’s help center covers setting up billable items so invoices comply with NDIS requirements. Those instructions follow the funding-period changes that started on May 19, 2025. Compliant invoicing is not a submission channel.

Cliniko’s DVA flow shows how little manual work a claiming integration can leave. A staff member raises the invoice, clicks the DVA claim link, and Cliniko pre-fills what it already holds. With a DVA payment allocation configured, the payment lands against the invoice on approval.

Pricing

Cliniko prices by practitioner band, and states its prices in United States dollars. An Australian practice therefore carries the exchange rate. SMS credits cost 10 cents per message on top.

4. Coreplus bundles Medicare claiming into its Plus plan

Coreplus targets physical therapy, psychology, exercise physiology and podiatry rather than allied health in general. It also lists profession-specific setups for chiropractors, dietitians, speech pathologists, osteopaths and audiologists.

Claiming is where Coreplus makes an unusual choice. Medicare and DVA claiming are add-ons. Both come free on the Plus plan at AUD $49 per user per month. The Core plan at AUD $35 carries limited add-on integrations instead.

Private health fund claiming runs through the Tyro Health add-on. The terminal pairs with the client’s invoice, so the rebate lands instantly. Its help center states plainly that Coreplus is not integrated with HICAPS or ECLIPSE.

NDIS support exists, but it is narrower than it first looks. Coreplus tracks plan start and end dates and allocates funding types. It also monitors fund usage and builds a customized NDIS invoice addressed to the plan manager. Coreplus names no claim submission channel.

Pricing

Coreplus prices in Australian dollars excluding GST. The SMS rate drops from 15 cents to 10 cents on the Plus plan. Free administrative seats on both plans keep a reception-heavy practice cheaper than a per-user headline suggests.

5. Zanda lodges DVA claims with no per-claim fee

Power Diary now trades as Zanda, and powerdiary.com redirects to zandahealth.com. Reviews that still say “Power Diary” are describing a brand that has been renamed. That is worth knowing before you go looking.

Zanda’s claiming story is competitive at the low end. The company states that integrating a Zanda account with DVA is free, with no additional fees for lodging DVA claims. Medicare and HealthPoint fund claims run through Tyro Health.

Registration is still a paper step. Zanda’s documentation notes that DVA online claiming needs an Online Claiming Provider Agreement, form HW027. You submit it once per practitioner provider number. Zanda then auto-populates the patient, provider and referral details.

Zanda bills NDIS work rather than claiming it, so a plan-managed caseload still means portal entry by hand. For a solo practitioner billing Medicare and health funds, that trade-off is easy. To an NDIS provider, it is the whole decision.

Pricing

Zanda publishes Australian dollar prices excluding GST, so a two-practitioner Growth practice pays AUD $88 per month. Additional SMS messages cost 9 cents each, and replies are free to receive.

6. Pabau runs Medicare and DVA claiming from the client record

Practice management software like Pabau suits an Australian allied health practice running several disciplines. It fits best where the billing is mostly Medicare and DVA. Pabau’s claims pipeline connects to Medicare, DVA and private health funds through Tyro Health, so the claim submits from the invoice just raised.

The sequence on Pabau’s own feature page is specific. A staff member adds the insurer and policy details to the client record, then raises the invoice. Pabau routes it to the right third party and checks the required fields before submission. From there, the claim tracks through five states.

Those five states are pending, submitted, processing, paid and error. Pabau captures assignment of benefit electronically, which matters for bulk-billed items. The pipeline does not suggest item numbers or run clinical decision support. Coding stays with the practitioner.

Pabau’s Australian integrations page also names private health fund claiming alongside Medicare and DVA. Splose or Nookal still serve an NDIS-heavy caseload or a workers’ compensation referral stream better, exactly as the table above shows.

Pricing

Pabau publishes plan tiers rather than dollar figures, because the price depends on your region and user count. Annual billing saves up to 20%, and every tier includes the full platform. You can see the tiers on Pabau’s pricing page.

7. Zedmed adds ECLIPSE claiming and on-premise hosting

Zedmed comes from general practice and specialist software rather than allied health. Its own site still names allied health as a supported profession. The platform offers structured clinical notes built for allied health, alongside billing for Medicare and private health funds.

Zedmed’s claiming answer is short. It supports all major claiming including Medicare, DVA and ECLIPSE, with the ECLIPSE workflow aimed at specialists. Nowhere on the site does Zedmed name an NDIS or HICAPS integration.

Deployment is the genuine differentiator here. Zedmed runs on-premise or in the cloud, with data stored in ISO 27001 certified data centers located in Australia. A practice with a policy against cloud hosting has very few other options on this list.

Pricing

Zedmed publishes no prices for either deployment and asks practices to get in touch for a quote. Budget for a scoping conversation rather than a self-service signup.

How a Medicare or NDIS claim moves through the software

A claim moves through allied health software in four steps, and only step three differs by platform. Steps one, two and four look much the same wherever you go.

1. The service is delivered and coded. A billable item goes onto the invoice, carrying the item number, the date and the practitioner.
2. The claim populates from the record. Patient, provider and referral details come from the client file rather than a retype.
3. The claim routes to a payer channel. Who is paying decides the route, and the five routes do not behave alike.
4. The outcome returns to the invoice. Claim status updates against the invoice, and an approved payment can post itself where an allocation is configured.

Set side by side, the five routes at step three explain most of the differences in this comparison.

Where step three splits, by payer

An Australian allied health practice deals with five payer channels, and each one behaves differently.

• Medicare. Services Australia runs Medicare Online, Medicare Easyclaim, ECLIPSE and Webclaim as its digital claiming channels. Easyclaim needs an EFTPOS terminal, and Medicare Online does not.
• DVA. DVA claims travel the same rails as Medicare claims. Almost every platform that does one does the other.
• NDIS. Agency-managed claims go to the NDIA through the myplace provider portal. A bulk payment request file takes up to 5,000 rows. The payment request falls due within 90 days of a service booking ending.
• Private health funds. HICAPS Digital Claims and Tyro HealthPoint both settle a rebate at the point of care. Nookal and Splose connect to both networks, while Cliniko, Coreplus, Zanda and Pabau use Tyro Health only.
• State workers’ compensation. Safe Work Australia administers no scheme of its own, so claims go to the state authority instead.

Two of those deserve a footnote. ECLIPSE handles Simplified Billing claims and patient claims for in-patient services, so an out-of-hospital practice rarely touches it. Certified Medicare claiming is an accreditation rather than a setting. Services Australia registers the provider before any software can lodge on their behalf.

Registration runs per provider number, not per practice

Services Australia registers online claiming against each provider number rather than against the practice. A five-practitioner team therefore files five agreements, whichever platform it picks. Budget time for that paperwork before you set a go-live date.

What sends a claim back

Most rejections trace to five causes, and each one is checkable before you hit submit. Services Australia returns a three-digit reason code that tells you which one you hit.

• Patient details. The Medicare card number, individual reference number and date of birth all have to match the Medicare record.
• Provider number. The number must match what Medicare holds for that practitioner at that location.
• Referral details. Allied health items under a chronic condition management plan need a current referral on file.
• Annual limits. Check the patient’s remaining services before the visit, not after the claim bounces.
• Claim type. The service category, the service date and the claim type all have to agree.

Fixing a rejection afterwards costs more than checking it upfront. A rejected claim lands back in someone’s afternoon, and the patient has already left. The card below turns those five causes into checks you can run before you submit.

Allied health software bills different payers than GP software

Allied health software centers on the payers a rehab caseload bills, which means NDIS, workers’ compensation and health funds. Generic medical practice management software centers on GP Medicare item numbers, prescribing and pathology.

The Australian Digital Health Agency treats practice management software as one shared category. Its subtitle covers general practice, allied health and private specialists. That framing helps procurement, but it misleads a practice building a shortlist.

Look at what the same category has to cover. A general medical program needs real-time prescription monitoring, an Active Script List connection and pathology informatics. An allied health practice needs none of that, and it needs NDIS plan tracking that no GP system carries.

The other split is the record itself. An allied health client may see a physical therapist, an exercise physiologist and a dietitian under the same funded plan. Software for rehab practices keeps those episodes on one timeline instead of three charts.

Is there free allied health software in Australia?

No fully featured free allied health software exists in Australia. Free trials are common, but every platform we checked charges a subscription once the trial ends.

The published trials vary. Cliniko offers 30 days, and Splose runs a free trial too. Zanda offers 14 days with a 12-month money-back guarantee. Coreplus offers an untimed trial with no credit card required.

A trial also tells you less than it seems about claiming. Medicare, DVA and HICAPS access needs provider registration and, in DVA’s case, a signed HW027 form. That paperwork outlasts most trial windows, so test the scheduling and notes during the trial and plan the claiming separately.

Pabau takes a different route and offers structured onboarding instead of a trial. A dedicated client coordinator migrates your records and configures the claiming. That is the part a self-serve trial leaves you to work out alone.

Eight checks worth running before you switch

Most feature lists for patient management systems repeat the same eight items, and every platform here has all eight. Run the list below instead, because these questions separate them.

• Your own payer mix. Write down last month’s revenue by payer, then check the Claims-Readiness Matrix against that split.
• Which fund channel you need. HICAPS and Tyro HealthPoint are separate networks, so match the platform to the terminal you already run.
• Per-claim fees. A subscription can look cheap until claim lodgement is charged per claim.
• The Essential Eight. The Australian Digital Health Agency expects practice management software to align with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight. That framework has four maturity levels.
• Privacy legislation. Software must meet the Privacy Act 1988 federally. A state act may also apply, such as the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.
• My Health Record and identifiers. Uploading documents needs conformance and consent controls, and validating an Individual Healthcare Identifier needs the HI Service.
• Accounting reconciliation. Pabau, Splose, Nookal and Coreplus all name Xero, and only Nookal also names MYOB.
• Migration reality. Ask who moves the client records, the appointment history and the outstanding invoices. Then ask who signs off that every record arrived.

Two allied health requirements sit outside the standard feature list. The Agency points allied health systems at the Nutrition Care Process Terminology and the NAHCC Allied Health Minimum Data Set. Neither one appears on any vendor comparison page we read.

How Pabau runs claiming and scheduling from one record

Plenty of Australian practices keep the diary in one tool and the claiming in another. At the end of the day, someone reconciles the two by hand.

Pabau, an all-in-one practice management system, keeps the appointment, treatment note, photo and invoice on one client record. A practitioner working across two sites sees one calendar, filtered by location or by practitioner. Front desk staff stop cross-checking three diaries.

On the claiming side, Pabau connects to Medicare, DVA and private health funds through Tyro Health for Australian practices. Claims submit digitally from the client’s invoice, and every claim’s outcome tracks in the same dashboard as the appointment.

The outcome is fewer places to look when a claim stalls. Every Pabau subscription includes every feature. A solo podiatrist and a six-site physical therapy group get the same claiming, records and reporting.

Claim Medicare, DVA and health funds from the client record

Pabau connects to Medicare, DVA and private health funds through Tyro Health. An Australian allied health practice submits claims from the invoice it just raised. Every claim’s status tracks in the same dashboard as the appointment.

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Conclusion

Pick the platform that matches your claiming mix, not the one with the longest feature list. An NDIS-heavy occupational therapy practice belongs on Splose or Nookal. A solo practitioner billing Medicare and health funds can start on Zanda for AUD $29 a month.

If your revenue crosses three or more payers, coverage is worth paying for. Nookal is the only platform here that reaches the state injury schemes. Switching later also means redoing every claiming registration.

The trade-off worth remembering is breadth against depth. A platform that only claims Medicare and DVA can still be the right answer for a multi-specialty practice. Paying for a fifth payer channel you never bill is money out the door.

Book a demo to see how Pabau handles Medicare, DVA and private health fund claiming alongside multi-practitioner scheduling.

Continue your research

Comparing platforms for a rehab caseload? Best physical therapy practice management software ranks the options on documentation and scheduling depth.

Running a chiropractic practice? Chiropractic practice management software covers the workflows a high-volume adjustment schedule needs.

Osteopathy practice still on paper notes? Osteopathy practice management software explains what changes when treatment notes move onto one client timeline.

Treating athletes alongside a general caseload? Sports medicine software compares the platforms built for return-to-play tracking.

Thinking about dropping payer contracts? Cash-based physical therapy sets out the economics before you change your billing model.

Frequently asked questions