Practice Incentive Program (PIP)

The Practice Incentives Program (PIP) aims to encourage general practices to continue providing quality care, enhanced capacity, and improved access to health outcomes for patients.

PIP is administered by the Department of Humans Services on behalf of the Department of Health. There are eight individual incentives under three payment streams. Payments can be made to both the practice and the individual practitioner, and are generally based on practice size.

The guidelines for each individual incentive have specific eligibility requirements. You must participate in the PIP before applying for individual incentives. Application to register for PIP is completed in HPOS using an individual PRODA account. Information on registering can be found on the Services Australia website.

PIP Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in the Practice Incentive Program (PIP) you must meet ongoing eligibility requirements. A practice must be accredited or registered for accreditation, against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) standards for general practices and must be accredited within 12 months of joining.

Practices must hold public liability insurance and all general practitioners at the practice must have current professional indemnity insurance.

Incentives

If your practice is eligible, you can apply for these eight individual incentives:

• After Hours Incentive: this incentive supports general practices to provide their patients with appropriate access to afterhours care.
• eHealth Incentive: this incentive encourages general practice to keep up to date with digital health and adopt new health technology.
• GP Aged Care Access: this incentive encourages GPs to provide increased and continuing services in Australian Government funded residential aged care facilities.
• Indigenous Health Incentive: this incentive supports practices and Indigenous health services to provide better health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.
• Procedural General Practitioner Payment: this incentive encourages GPs in rural and remote areas to maintain local access to surgical, anesthetic and obstetric services. This payment is made in February and August each year.
• Quality Improvement Incentive: this incentive is a payment to general practice that participate in quality improvement activities to improve patient outcomes and deliver best practice care. This includes guidelines, PIP eligible data set data governance framework and 10 improvement measures. 
• Rural Loading Incentive: this incentive recognises the difficulties of providing care, often with little professional support, in rural and remote areas.
• Teaching Payment: this payment encourages practices to provide teaching sessions to undergraduates and graduate medical students preparing to enter the Australian medical profession.

More detailed information about Practice Incentive Program (PIP) can be found on the Services Australia website.

Workforce Incentive Payment (WIP)

In addition to the PIP payments, the Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) provides targeted financial incentives to encourage doctors to deliver services in rural and remote areas. It aims to build a sustainable and high quality health workforce, particularly in rural and remote areas, by targeting incentives.

WIP provides incentives to general practices who employ nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and practitioners, and allied health professionals.

For further information, please go to the Services Australia website.