Practice Incentive Program (PIP)

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Project Officer -Robyn Mears ph 8752 4910

The Practice Incentives Program (PIP) aims to recognize general practices that provide comprehensive, quality care, and which have attained accreditation against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards
for General Practice.

The Central Sydney Division of General Practitioners (CSDGP) offers local practices, practice visits, a helpdesk for enquiries and a wide range of resources.

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 of the practice, such as patient payments and Medicare rebates.

The PIP aims to compensate for the limitations of fee-for-service arrangements. Under these arrangements, practices that provide numerous quick consultations receive higher rewards than those that take the time to look after the ongoing health care needs of their patients. High throughput of patients is also associated with unnecessary prescribing, tests and referrals.

Core PIP Incentives

Payments focus on aspects of general practice that contribute to quality care. These include the use of IM/IT, provision of after hours care, student teaching and quality prescribing. A rural loading is paid to practices in rural and remote locations.

PIP payments are mainly dependant on practice size, in terms of patients seen, rather than on the number of consultations performed.

Chronic Disease Management Initiatives

These require an additional sign on and attract additional payments Five new incentive items were introduced during 2001. These were to improve management of diabetes, mental health, asthma and cervical screening, as well as incentives for employing practice nurses in rural and remote areas.

Please refer to the 'Downloads' section for information on these items.