The practice incentives program

From a practice view point there will need to be feedback often enough to assist the quality improvement cycle. It is recognised that if frequent data provision is required it will need to be automated to reduce administrative burden on practices. Question 9 — Will there be a single software vendor for practices to use to extract and provide the data?

In our market driven environment it would be expected that a number of software providers would be able to meet the requirements. The standardisation of outputs may be preferred to specifying a particular data extraction tool. Question 10 — What will be the role of the PHNs in this change? The redesigned PIP will provide an ideal opportunity to further encourage collaborative efforts among clinicians, between practices, within regions and on a national scale to improve health delivery and outcomes.

PHNs have a key role in regional planning and many already have strong relationships with general practices in their region around the use of data and quality improvement. Question 11 — Will practices still need to be accredited to participate? Yes, practices will need to be accredited to participate. General practices vary considerably in the extent to which they participate in PIP so exactly how this will change for each practice may differ. Question 13 — The income generated by PIP often allows a general practice to employ a nurse or a diabetes educator.

Will the redesign change these arrangements? The Practice Nurse Incentive Programme PNIP which provides incentive payments to practices to support an expanded role for nurses working in general practice is not included as part of the PIP redesign.

No, neither of these programs is being considered in the PIP redesign. The MHNIP is going through changes associated with the mental health funding, which is separate to this process. A redesigned PIP has the potential to better support clinicians in their provision of high quality patient centred care.

Combining multiple incentives into a single QI incentive will:. The affected incentives have a variety of payment times and we are working with Department of Human Services DHS to ensure the implementation of the redesign will have a smooth transition process. Question 17 — How will you make sure that specific chronic diseases like diabetes continue to be addressed? It is anticipated that practices will use data to inform targeted quality improvement activities for their patient population.

A small number of priority areas will be established by government, similar to the national Key Performance Indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care. The Government has also announced its intent to develop a Primary Healthcare Minimum Data Set which will be used for quality improvement, policy, research, and population health monitoring.

The Rural Loading Incentive will remain unchanged. The challenges general practices face providing care in rural and remote areas are well recognised. A key matter to be considered is how the PBS co-payment measure that is linked to the current Indigenous Health Incentive will be managed so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will not be disadvantaged. Question 20 — Will you be making changes to the incentives that are retained? An implementation date has not been decided.

Only after the government has made a decision on the preferred way forward, will work to implement the change begin.

Initial changes are anticipated for early ; however it may take some time to roll out fully. Question 22 — Will there be any additional payments to assist practices update IT systems and provide education for staff to comply with the changes? By having this information recorded for your practice, we can utilise identifiers known to the Department of Health and Department of Human Services to guide your practice on the requirements. Yes, we can. The table below provides some guidance on the payments available per quarter, and per annum, based on your practice's SWPE.

This information is provided as an estimate only: the payments for which your practice is eligible may differ from the calculations below. The Practice Incentives Program operates on a quarterly structure, with eligibility assessed on the final day of the month prior to the quarterly payment month.

Quarterly payment month Point in time assessment of eligibility Reference period February 31 January 1 November to 31 January May 30 April 1 February to 30 April August 31 July 1 May to 31 July November 31 October 1 August to 31 October For the purpose of the PIP QI, it is important for practices to remember that there is a defined data submission period for each quarter, and only extractions received within the data submission period will contribute to the practice's payment eligibility for that quarter.

If your practice does not receive a payment but all data sharing and other PIP QI eligibility requirements have been met, it may have had its payment delayed or withheld due to: non-compliance with eHealth incentives requirements this can affect all PIP payments for a short time expired general practice accreditation or recent updates to accreditation status not received failure to submit the annual confirmation statement If your practice does not receive an expected PIP QI payment, or believes there are extenuating circumstances that should be considered, please direct your communication through the Department of Human Services by completing the Practice incentives review of decision form IP The ten quality improvement measures are: Proportion of patients with diabetes with a current HbA1c result Proportion of patients with a smoking status Proportion of patients with a weight classification Proportion of patients aged 65 and over who were immunised against influenza Proportion of patients with diabetes who were immunised against influenza Proportion of patients with COPD who were immunised against influenza Proportion of patients with alcohol consumption status Proportion of patients with the necessary risk factors assessed to enable CVD assessment Proportion of female patients with an up-to-date cervical screening Proportion of patients with diabetes with a blood pressure result The PIP Eligible Data Set is de-identified patient data, aggregated at the practice level.

Under the guidelines of the program, the PIP Eligible Data Set can only be used for the purposes of: Improving the quality of care and patient outcomes Improving the capacity for general practices to benchmark their activities against peers on an agreed set of improvement measures Providing nationally consistent, comparable data against specified quality improvement measures to create regional and national health data sets Contributing to service planning and population health mapping at different levels including PHN boundaries, local health districts, jurisdictional boundaries, and national, and Confirming participant eligibility for the receipt of Commonwealth funding under the PIP QI incentive.

Note that participation in the incentive must be approved prior to the data extraction: successful extractions that occur prior to successful PIP QI registration will be considered ineligible. If this is the preferred method you wish to implement, please contact you WAPHA Practice Support Staff to establish a data sharing arrangement which will take some time and coordination.

Whatever your current circumstances, it is important that you get in touch promptly as the process for establishing a data sharing arrangement will take some time and coordination.

Your first data submission must be received between 1 August and 15 October for your practice to be eligible for a Quarter 1 payment. While practices with non-compatible software were eligible for the PIP QI exemption, that period has now ended 31 July and you will need to adopt a portal solution for sharing data with the PHN.

Please contact your Practice Support Team member to initiate this process. Assuming your practice uses software that is compatible with Pen CS, CAT4 can be configured to run a data extract by location once the clinical software has been correctly configured. If your practice uses one of the software systems listed below, please review the information provided by PEN CS to ensure the software is correctly configured for collection by location: Best Practice collection by location Medical Director collection by location Communicare collection by location If your practice uses software that is not compatible with Pen CS, CAT4 and you intend to share data via JSON file extract, please advise the Department if your practice is using a shared database with other practices within your local PHN area or across PHNs before 30 September via PIPQIexemptions health.

These practices will be managed on a case by case basis by the Department and further advice provided at that time. CIS vendors, Pen CS and Polar are continuing to work collaboratively with the Department of Health the Department to explore solutions for those practices using shared databases. Practices with a data sharing agreement with WAPHA will receive a notification to confirm: a successful extraction, or an unsuccessful extraction.

Overview The assistance offered is detailed and various payments are available for quality care activities, including payments for: eHealth quality improvement teaching general practitioner aged care access Indigenous health after hours care procedural activities rural locations.

What are the eligibility criteria? To be eligible for the PIP your practice must: be a general practice as defined by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners RACGP be an open practice as defined by the PIP be accredited, or registered for accreditation, against the RACGP Standards for general practices the Standards have public liability insurance cover have professional indemnity insurance cover for all general practitioners and nurse practitioners.

How do you apply? Contact information. About us.