Victorian and Tasmanian PHNs are working together to support the introduction of the Practice Incentive Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI) Incentive.
The Australian Government’s Practice Incentive Program (PIP) aims to support general practice. The PIP Quality Improvement (QI) Incentive guidance outlines the components a general practice needs to meet to qualify for a PIP QI Incentive payment.
Department of Health guidance is available here.
Announcement from the Australian Government
The number and type of incentives available within PIP will change from 1 August 2019 when five of the existing incentives will cease and a new incentive, the PIP Quality Improvement Incentive will commence.
The QI Incentive aims to recognise and support those practices that commit to improving the care they provide to their patients. Participating practices will be supported to utilise the information they have about their own communities and their knowledge of the particular needs of their own patients to develop innovative strategies to drive improvement.
As well as demonstrating a commitment to quality improvement, practices will share a minimum set of aggregated data with their local Primary Health Network (PHN), such as the number of patients who are diabetic, the percent who smoke, the cardiovascular risk and weight profile. This information will be collated at the local level by the PHNs to assist in supporting improvement and understanding health needs. There is no requirement for individual patient data, and any measures from an individual practice will not be available to the Department of Health.
With an implementation date of 1 August 2019, the following four Incentives will continue through to 31 July 2019 and then cease:
- Asthma Incentive
- Quality Prescribing Incentive
- Cervical Screening Incentive
- Diabetes Incentive, and
The seven PIP Incentives that will remain unchanged are:
- eHealth Incentive
- After Hours Incentive
- Rural Loading Incentive
- Teaching Payment
- Indigenous Health Incentive, and
- Procedural General Practitioner Payment
- General Practitioner Aged Care Access Incentive.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australian Medical Association (AMA), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), the Australian Association of Practice Managers (AAPM) and the National Aboriginal and Community Controlled Health Organisations (NACCHO) are all working together as members of the Practice Incentives Program Advisory Group (PIPAG), along with the Department of Health to ensure that this initiative is focused on quality improvement and does not follow other countries in introducing a ‘pay for performance’ program with perverse incentives.
The Colleges, AMA, RDAA, AAPM and NACCHO are also working closely with the PHNs to ensure the program has strong governance of general practice data.
Victorian PHNs are collaborating with health partners including the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Victoria, the Heart Foundation, the Lung Foundation, Quit Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association, and the Victorian Cytology Service.