Practice incentive program (PIP)
This page provides information on data management and the Medicare Practice Incentive Payment (PIP) scheme.
The PIP delivers financial incentives with the aim of recognising general practices that provide comprehensive, quality care, who are either accredited or working towards accreditation for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) Standards for General Practices.
The PIP is part of a blended payment approach for general practice. Payments made through the program are in addition to other income earned by the general practitioners and the practice, such as patient payments and Medicare rebates.
The PIP aims to compensate for the limitations of fee-for-service arrangements.
Medicare Australia assesses all applications from general practices for participation in the program.
The Department of Heath and AgeingExternal link manages the program policy development, including eligibility criteria.
In line with the Practice Incentives Program Review Group recommendations, 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.
What is covered by the PIP payments?
There are eleven broad elements to the payments:
1. Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) and eHealth Incentive
2. After hours care
3. Practice Nurse Incentive (PNI)
4. Quality Prescribing Incentive (QPI)
5. Teaching
6. Rural loading
7. Cervical Screening Incentive
8. Asthma Incentive
9. Diabetes Incentive
10. Rural and Remote Procedural GP Payment
11. Domestic Violence Incentive
12. The Aged Care Access Incentive (ACAI)
13. Aboriginal health incentives (from May 2010)
Further information and forms are available at the Medicare site:
http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/incentives/pip/index.jsp
How can the Division help practices with the PIP incentive?
The Division can
- Explain and assist practices optimise their access to PIP payments
- Assist with RACGP accreditation
- Provide setup training and support for the IT and data management systems necessary to access PIP incentives
More information