Online practice application for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-10130010

A practice can submit an online application for the for the PIP and the WIP - Practice Stream. This is done through the Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) system in the PIP online system and/or WIP - Practice Stream online system.

The application and details entered will appear as a task in the PIP online system and/or WIP - Practice Stream online system. The practice will also need to:

• complete the Practice Incentives Practice ownership details and declaration (IP008) form and
• provide supporting documents

By lodging the application online, the practice is only required to confirm the practice’s accreditation and ownership details. All other information entered by the practice during the application process is taken as correct.

A practice cannot apply online for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream at the same time if they want to be a PIP consenting practice for the WIP - Practice Stream. A practice should submit their PIP online application. Once this is approved, they can submit their WIP - Practice Stream application.

The practice must lodge the below supporting documents with an online application:

• Practice Incentives Practice ownership details and declaration (IP008) form
• Current Accreditation or registered for accreditation certificate
• Evidence to support their selected practice ownership type as outlined in the IP008

If the practice has submitted the Practice Incentives Application (IP001) form instead of the Practice Incentives Practice ownership details and declaration (IP008) form:

• this is acceptable if they have used the current version of the form
• staff only need to check the answers needed for an online practice application

The practice does not need to submit Practice Incentives Individual general practitioner or nurse practitioner forms (IP003) unless they are registering a procedural General Practitioner (GP).

Practices can submit their supporting documents by:

• uploading to 'associated documents' in their online application
• HPOS form upload

Practices uploading forms to 'associated documents' must do so before submitting the application. Once the application has been submitted for assessment, the customer cannot view or make changes to the information provided.

There is a size limit on documents uploaded to Associated Documents. See Associated documents and comments for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream for information about the size limit and managing oversize documents.

If the practice needs to make changes to the information provided in their online application, this must be submitted in writing, signed by an owner of the practice who has signed the Practice Incentives Practice ownership details and declaration (IP008).

Where the evidence to support the ownership type does not match the ownership type selected in the online application, the ownership evidence is the ‘source of truth’. The practice ownership type should be updated to match the evidence provided. If the ownership details are changed, the practice must be notified in writing. See Online Services for PIP and WIP - Practice for more information about HPOS form upload.

Existing PIP practices applying for the WIP - Practice Stream as a PIP consenting practice may submit ownership evidence which shows the ownership details on the PIP profile are not correct. Provided the evidence confirms that the ownership has not changed, the evidence can be used to correct the ownership details on the PIP profile.

Process page > Table 3 has more information.

Practices can apply online for individual incentives after approval for the PIP. Incentive applications submitted through PIP online (HPOS incentive applications) do not require a form. Eligibility is determined from the submitted responses to the application questions.

The only online incentive application that needs Services Australia verification and approval is Procedural general practitioner payment application.

For more information on Procedural GP Payment, see Procedural GP Payment practice application for PIP.

All other incentive applications will be automatically approved once the practice selects ‘submit’ in PIP online.

Practices reapplying for the program/s after being closed or withdrawn must be accredited before submitting their application. Practices cannot reapply while registered for accreditation.

The exception is where the practice changed ownership after it was closed or withdrawn. These applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis. In most cases, the new owners can apply with a registered for accreditation certificate.

Practices reapplying after being closed or withdrawn will be approved under a new practice ID. These practices will not carry over their SWPE value from the old practice ID. They must rebuild their SWPE under the new practice ID.

If there are general practitioners who have remained at the practice, their start date on the new practice profile will be the day after the closure/withdrawal date of the old practice.

Online applications ready for assessment will have a status of ‘awaiting verification.’ The application ID will be a hyperlink which will open the application.

Applications with a status of ‘initial’ and no application ID hyperlink:

• are unsubmitted online applications
• cannot be opened by internal staff
• can only be accessed by the user who started the application

There may be occasions where the person who started the online application is no longer available to finalise or cancel the application. These applications must be deleted by Program Management before a new application can be actioned.

The practice owner must request deletion of the online application in writing, confirming they are not able to proceed with or cancel the existing online application.

Requests to delete an online application must be escalated to Program Management via Local Peer Support (LPS).

Applications submitted using online channels are not automatically allocated for assessment. A staff member will be tasked each day to check the PIP and WIP - Practice Stream online systems for HPOS applications. These applications are then actioned as though allocated by PaNDA.

Staff actioning HPOS applications as part of the online system check must search PaNDA, HPOS mail and the external email if the Practice Incentives Practice ownership details and declaration (IP008) and supporting documents are not uploaded to the application.

Online applications with no supporting documents must not be rejected until sufficient time has passed for the documents to be received. At least 7 days should be allowed for the information to be submitted.

All online applications involve 5 phases by two different Service Officers.

The first Service Officer will complete the first two phases and the final phase:

• Phase 1 - Assess the online PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream application
• Phase 2 - Verify the PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream application

The application is then ‘delegated’ to a second Service Officer via PaNDA. The second service officer will complete the third and fourth phase:

• Phase 3 - Quality assurance of the PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream online application
• Phase 4 - Approve or Decline the PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream online application

Once the application has been quality checked, and approved or declined, the application is re-assigned back to the first Service Officer via PaNDA. The original Service Officer will complete the final phase:

• Phase 5 - Finalise the PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream online application. This will include:
• making sure the application is complete
• add any relevant comments to the new practice profile
• prepare, upload and send the approval letter for PIP
• finalise the work item in PaNDA

If the original Service Officer will not be available to complete Phase 5 before point-in-time the work should be allocated to Local Peer Support (LPS).