Forms for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-10010070

A practice must lodge the current version of all Practice Incentives forms.

The form code and publication date (month year) is in the footer of all Practice Incentives forms.

See the Practice Incentives forms list on the Resources page for a list of current form versions.

Old form versions are not acceptable unless they are:

• lodged during a grace period
• a resubmitted form that was current at the original date of lodgement
• Teaching Payment claim forms (IP006) that were the current version at the date of university certification

Return old form versions to the practice. See the related Operational Blueprint procedure for the right letter.

If a form was current at the original date of lodgement, and the practice resubmits the same form after the cut-off date for the old form, this is acceptable.

For the teaching payments, if the form was current when the university signed and dated the form, this is acceptable.

See Practice Incentives forms list on the Resources page for a list of old form versions and their cut-off date.

The Resources page has a link to the Practice Incentives forms.

A practice must submit all pages of the current form, even if it only needs to be partially completed. This ensures the practice changes are updated correctly. Pages from both current and old form versions cannot be accepted.

The page does not need to be resubmitted if:

• page 1 of the form is information only, and

there are no fields for completion For example

A practice submits a Practice Incentives Change of practice details (IP005) form for authorised contact person changes. Only pages 1, 2, 4 and 6 are received. Reject the form.

All Services Australia forms have an identification code. For the Incentive Programs, it starts with ‘IP’ followed by a form code.

The form code consists of a 3 digit number, followed by a decimal and another 4 digit number.

The first 3 digits refer to the form code. The last 4 digits refer to the form version number. It is based on the publication date of the last form update in the format YYMM.

For example, IP001.2002:

• The form code is IP001
• The version number is .2002 (2020 February)

The form code is in the bottom left hand corner on each page of the form.

Department of Health and Aged Care may conduct compliance audits to make sure practices meet the requirements of the PIP, individual incentives and/or WIP - Practice Stream.

Practices must keep all practice documents for at least 6 years from the date the declaration is complete.

Practices can keep their documents in a hard copy or electronic format.

A practice may include an attachment that lists updates for multiple practice locations. This is acceptable for the below forms only:

• Practice Incentives Individual general practitioner, nurse practitioner and health professionals details (IP003)
• Practice Incentives Change of practice details (IP005)
• Practice Incentives Practice closure or withdrawal (IP007)
• Practice Incentives Change of practice ownership (IP010)

The Resources page has a link to the forms.

Each page of the attachment(s) must include:

• all of the individual location specific details that are required on the form. For example, the IP003 form requires the:
• practice ID number
• practice name
• practice address, and
• provider number
• the full name and signature of the same signatory who signed the form.

The required number of right signatories must sign and complete the relevant declaration.

Accept the form when:

• it has a first name initial and the full last name, or
• the first name has been shortened (for example, ‘Alexander’ Smith is ‘Alex’ Smith)

Unless the name can be clearly identified from the signature, a form is not acceptable when:

• no name, or
• the first or last name only is given

See the Resources page for Acceptable Signature Blocks.

If the form requires a practice owner signature, the owner signing the form must be listed on the practice ownership details screen.

All signature types are acceptable on PIP and WIP – Practice Stream forms. This includes signatures that are:

• digital
• electronic
• scanned
• stamped
• signed by hand

The address on all documents must match the address on the practice profile. This includes:

• All practice incentives forms
• Accreditation certificates, and
• Addresses registered to provider numbers

Where the practice address or provider number on the document is:

• Slightly different - escalate to the Local Peer Support (LPS) via PaNDA to see if it can be accepted. See Managing PaNDA work items for Incentive Programs for how to escalate a work item
• Completely different - return the documents to the practice using the correct letter

PIP/WIP - Practice Stream Online validates all practice addresses to match Australia Post’s data, which may result in variances between PIP Online and WIP - Practice Stream Online and a practice’s advised address. The location address is harmonised to the Australia Post address to reduce the risk of overpayment or underpayment to the practice, based on their actual geographical location.

The address advised by the practice can be used in the postal address field. This address will show on all correspondence to the practice.

To avoid possible administrative issues, practices must be informed in writing if the harmonised address is different from the notified address. Practices with address variances must ensure the address used on Incentives forms matches the address registered on the practice profile.

If the practice requests an address variance be corrected, escalate to the LPS via PaNDA for further assessment. All requests are to be submitted by a practice owner or authorised contact in writing. See Practice relocation for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream for more information about address updates.

Requests to amend a practice address that do not match the harmonised address will only be accepted if the Australia Post data is not correct. Location addresses will not be updated where the practice is choosing to use an address that doesn’t match the harmonised address.

Note: the system may not accept addresses with a number range (e.g. 25-29). Escalate to LPS to determine the appropriate address to enter.

When keying practice location addresses, the below message will appear if the address is not recognised:
‘2307 - The address entered is not recognised by Australia Post. You should use the Australia Post address for the practice’s physical location. Using the keyed address may result in underpayments or overpayments to the practice. Do you want to continue to use the address entered?’

Confirm the warning message and continue to process the form.

Unless advised in the specific Operational Blueprint procedure, do not:

• write any information on forms
• respond to unanswered questions on a form
• amend information provided on a form