Practice Incentives Program (PIP)
What is the Practice Incentives Program (PIP)?
Under fee-for-service arrangements, practices that provide numerous quick consultations receive higher payment than those that take the time to look after the ongoing health care needs of their patients. High throughput can result in unnecessary prescribing, tests and referrals.
To improve this situation, the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) was developed to provide incentives that encourage general practices to improve the quality of care provided to patients.
Administered by Medicare Australia on behalf of the Department of Health and Ageing
(DoHA), PIP is a part of a blended payment approach for general practice. Payments made through the program are in addition to other income earned by general practitioners (GPs) and the practice, such as patient payments and Medicare rebates. For a practice to be eligible to receive any of the above incentives they must either be accredited, or working towards accreditation for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) Standards for General Practices.
Access to the PIP is available only to practices that are fully accredited, or new practices that are registered for accreditation and must be fully accredited within 12 months of joining.
PIP payments are mainly dependent on practice size, in terms of patients seen.The basis for the PIP payment formula was developed in consultation with the General Practice Financing Group (GPFG). The GPFG is a negotiating body comprising the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Australian Medical Association, Rural Doctors Association of Australia, Australian Divisions of General Practice, and the Australian Government. More information is provided in the Formula section of this site.
All forms and guidelines associated with PIP can be found on the Forms and guidelines page.
Currently PIP is made up of 13 elements and practices can apply for as many of the following incentives as they are eligible for.
Practices may spend their payment as they wish, though the usual taxation rules apply.
There are 13 broad elements to the payments:
1. After Hours Incentive
PIP payments are available for making sure that regular patients of the practice have either access to or the provision of 24 hour care.
More information on the After Hours Incentive
2. Practice Nurse Incentive (PNI)
The PIP PNI encourages general practices and Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) in rural and remote areas to employ practice nurses and/or Aboriginal health workers. Practices in urban areas of workforce shortage can employ allied health workers such as physiotherapists, dieticians and occupational therapists instead of, or in addition to, practice nurses and/or Aboriginal health workers. The incentive is not intended to cover full employment costs.
The payment to PIP practices is based on a minimum of two sessions per week over the payment quarter.
More information on the Practice Nurse Incentive
3. Quality Prescribing Incentive (QPI)
The Quality Prescribing Incentive is available to assist PIP practices to remain current with information on the quality use of medicines.
More information on the Quality Prescribing Incentive
4. Teaching
An incentive payment is available for PIP practices that host undergraduate students for teaching placements.
More information on the Teaching Incentive
5. Rural loading
Rural loadings are payable to a PIP practice depending on the geographical size of the region of the practice location and the remoteness of the practice, according to Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area classification (RRMA) 3-7.
More information on the Rurality loadings
6. Cervical Screening Incentive
The Cervical Screening Incentive consists of the following components;
- Sign-on Payment: one-off payment to PIP practices that engage with the state/territory Cervical Screening Registers.
- Outcomes Payment: payment to PIP practices where a specified proportion of women aged between 20 and 69 years has been screened in the last 30 months
- Services Incentive Payment: a payment to practitioners working within a PIP practice for screening women between 20 and 69 years, who have not had a cervical smear within the last four years.
More information on the Cervical Screening Incentive
7. Asthma Incentive
The Asthma Incentive consists of the following components;
- Sign-on Payment: one-off payment to PIP practices that implement a cycle of care for patients with moderate to severe asthma.
- Service Incentive Payment: payment to practitioners working within a PIP practice who complete an Asthma Cycle of Care for patients with moderate to severe asthma, payable once per year per patient.
More information on the Asthma Incentive
8. Diabetes Incentive
The Diabetes Incentive consists of the following components;
- Sign-On Payment: One-off payment for notifying the Australian Government that the PIP practice uses a diabetes register and recall/reminder system.
- Outcomes Payment: Payment to PIP practices that complete an annual cycle of care for a target proportion of their patients with diabetes.
- Service Incentive Payment: Payment to providers working within a PIP practice for each annual cycle of care for a patient with diabetes, payable once per year per patient.
More information on the Diabetes Incentive
9. Procedural GP Payment
This initiative acknowledges that general practices in rural and remote areas are often required to deliver a wide range of services such as obstetrics, surgery and anaesthetics which in urban areas are typically delivered by specialists.
For a practice to be eligible for the payment it must participate in the PIP, be located within the target area Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area classification (RRMAs) 3-7, and have at least one GP who provides one or more of the procedural services described in the definition of a procedural general practitioner.
More information on the Procedural GP payment
10. Domestic Violence Incentive
The Domestic Violence Incentive supports PIP practices in RRMAs 3-7 that act as a referral point for domestic violence support services.
More information on the Domestic Violence Incentive
11. Aged Care Access Incentive
The Aged Care Access Incentive supports improving access to GP and allied health services for residents of aged care facilities through two separate components.
- An Incentive payment through the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) GP Aged Care Access Incentive—the Incentive recognises some of the difficulties faced by GPs in providing care in these settings and aims to encourage GPs to continue to provide increased and continuing services in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs). These payments are administered by Medicare Australia.
- Payment for clinical care services provided by allied health professionals in RACFs—these services are not currently covered by Medicare or other government funding arrangements such as residential aged care subsidies. This component will be managed by state based organisations who may purchase allied health services directly or through contractual arrangements with Divisions of General Practice.
More information on the Aged Care Access Incentive
12. eHealth Incentive
The PIP eHealth Incentive encourages practices to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in eHealth.
To be eligible for the PIP eHealth Incentive, practices must:
- have a secure messaging capability, which is provided by an eligible supplier
- have (or have applied for) a location/site Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate for the practice and each practice branch, and make sure that each practitioner from the practice has (or has applied for) an individual PKI certificate
- provide practitioners from the practice with access to a range of key electronic clinical resources.
As technology continues to develop, practices can securely exchange information such as discharge summaries, pathology and specialist reports, send electronic referrals and pathology orders and prescribing electronically. Patient information sent and received electronically will be able to be added directly into a patient’s electronic health record.
More information on the eHealth Incentive
13. Indigenous Health Incentive
The incentive will support general practices and Indigenous health services to provide better health care for Indigenous Australians, including best practice management of chronic disease.
The PIP Indigenous Health Incentive will target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients aged 15 years and over with chronic disease and is part of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap: Tackling Indigenous Chronic Disease.
More information on the Indigenous Health Incentive
Forms and Guidelines
Glossary
- AGPAL
- Australian General Practice Accreditation Ltd
- DVA
- Department of Veterans' Affairs
- DVI
- Domestic Violence Incentive
- FTE GP
- Full Time Equivalent General Practitioner
- GPA PLUS
- General Practice Accreditation Plus
- GPFG
- General Practice Financing Group
- GPSRG
- General Practice Strategy Review Group
- GPII
- General Practice Immunisation Incentives
- MBS
- Medicare Benefits Schedule
- NPS
- National Prescribing Service
- PIP
- Practice Incentives Program
- PNI
- Practice Nurse Incentive
- PNAHW
- Practice Nurse / Allied Health Worker/Aboriginal Health Worker
- QAS
- Quality Assurance Services
- QPI
- Quality Prescribing Initiative
- QSL
- Qualifying Service Levels
- RACFs
- Residential Aged Care Facilities
- RACGP
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
- RCTI
- Recipient Created Tax Invoice
- RRMA
- Rural, Remote & Metropolitan Area
- SWPE
- Standardised Whole Patient Equivalent
- WPE
- Whole Patient Equivalent
Last updated: 1 September, 2010
