Practice application for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-11020000

Practices can apply for the PIP and/or WIP - Practice Stream:

• electronically via Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) in PIP Online or WIP Practice Stream Online, or
• manually by completing the Practice Incentives application form (IP001)

A practice can be registered for the:

• PIP
• WIP - Practice Stream as a PIP consenting practice
• WIP - Practice Stream

The IP001 form consists of the below parts:

• Part A - Eligibility requirements and practice details
• Part B - Additional practice branches
• Part C - Individual PIP Incentives (optional)
• Part D - Workforce Incentive Program - Practice Stream (optional)
• Part E - Practice ownership details
• Part F - Individual general practitioner or nurse practitioner details and declaration
• Part G - Owners’ declaration

The practice must lodge the following supporting documents with the Practice Incentives application (IP001) form:

• A current accreditation or registered for accreditation certificate
• Evidence to support the selected ownership type as outlined in Part E of the IP001. See Change of practice ownership for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream for information on acceptable evidence

An accreditation or registered accreditation certificate is not mandatory when a PIP approved practice is applying for the WIP - Practice Stream as a PIP consenting practice. The WIP - Practice Stream online system will take the accreditation details directly from the PIP practice profile.

The application will go through several stages (referred to as statuses) before final approval. The Resources page has a list of the statuses and what happens at each stage. Any documents submitted can be uploaded to the initial application.

The Initial status allows the application to be registered into PIP Online and/or WIP - Practice Stream Online without being approved for the relevant program/s. This records the application as received and the action taken.

If a practice is applying for:

• PIP only - the application can be registered to initial stage for the PIP only
• PIP and WIP - Practice Stream as a PIP consenting practice, the application can only be registered to initial stage for the PIP. The WIP - Practice Stream application cannot be registered until the PIP application is approved
• WIP - Practice Stream only, or is not PIP consenting, the application can be registered to initial stage for the WIP - Practice Stream

If an accreditation or registered for accreditation certificate has not been provided, the application cannot be registered in PIP Online and/or WIP - Practice Stream Online.

Applications received with no accreditation certificate must be clearly identified in Processing and National Demand Allocation (PaNDA). Staff must take the following steps:

• record the Practice Name in the Practice ID field
• upload all letters and documents to the work item
• add processing notes to explain why the application is not registered and any follow up action taken
• make sure the work item classification is correct

A practice can apply for the below incentives using the Practice Incentives application form (IP001):

• After Hours incentive
• Indigenous Health Incentive
• Procedural General Practitioner (GP) payment

Practice must use HPOS to apply for:

• eHealth incentive
• Quality Improvement incentive

They must apply after the practice's application has been approved and they are issued a practice ID.

Practices do not need to register for the Teaching Payment or the Rural Loading Incentive. Teaching Payments are automatically calculated when the practice submits an eligible Teaching Payment claim form.

Eligibility for the Rural Loading Incentive is determined by the practice location. The PIP and WIP - Practice Stream online systems will allocate a rural loading classification on approval in the program/s.

Do not reject a practice application form if the practice does not apply for any individual incentives. There is no requirement to apply for individual incentives. Practices can apply or withdraw from any or all incentives at any time after approval in the PIP.

If a practice applies for PIP via HPOS, all the PIP incentives can be applied for in the online application.

Practices applying for the WIP - Practice Stream must have a general practitioner and an eligible health professional working at the practice at the date of application. The WIP - Practice Stream Guidelines have more information about eligible health professionals.

A practice cannot be approved for the WIP - Practice Stream before employing or retaining the services of an eligible health professional.

Practices engaging an enrolled nurse must have appropriate supervisory arrangements in place. The practice must claim the nurse practitioner or registered nurse hours spent supervising the enrolled nurse. See Health professional hours in the WIP - Practice Stream for more information about enrolled nurse requirements.

A practice already participating in the PIP and applying for the WIP - Practice Stream, or applying for both programs, can choose to be a PIP consenting practice.

This means they consent to the following PIP information being used for the WIP - Practice Stream:

• practice name and main address
• eligibility details, such as accreditation, public liability insurance and indemnity insurance
• bank account details
• contact details
• location details
• ownership details
• general practitioner details, and
• their Standardised Whole Patient Equivalent (SWPE)

PIP consenting practices will have the same practice ID for both programs. Most changes to practice details will only need to be updated on the PIP profile. The changes will be updated automatically on the WIP - Practice Stream profile.