Email triage for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-20052734

Email triage is the process of assessing each new message and deciding what action to take.

It includes managing the volume of emails through the external email boxes and the HPOS Mail Centres.

HPOS Mail Centre is a secure electronic messaging system only accessible by HPOS account holders and people they nominate. Incentives customers should be encouraged to use HPOS messaging rather than unsecured email channels.

Only an owner or authorised contact person registered with PIP or WIP - Practice Stream can request practice specific details. The Registration Authority (RA) number identifies the sender.

Practice updates that do not require a form can be accepted via HPOS without a signature, if the message was sent from the RA number of an authorised contact person or practice owner. The Process page contains further details about confirming an RA number.

The HPOS Mail Centre shows:

• incoming mail to action
• archived mail
• the latest message in the mail thread

The HPOS Mail Centre is a combined mail centre for both programs:

• PIP and WIP Practice Stream

The WIP - Practice Stream mail centre was decommissioned for external users 9 October 2025. Internal users retain view access to all received and sent messages.

See Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) Support Mail Centre for more details.

A customer can send an email to the external email boxes to communicate electronically.

The Resources page contains a list of the external email boxes.

Service Officers trained in email triage will be allocated email triage duties in their schedules.

Service Officers are responsible for:

• responding immediately where a template response is available
• forwarding work items to KOFAX
• forwarding to individual staff members
• forwarding to other programs
• filing to appropriate folders once complete
• deleting non-work-related emails
• escalating to the Local Peer Support (LPS) via LPS email box for advice/determinations
• triaging HPOS Mail Centre

The owner of an email box grants the access. See a Team Leader for more details.

Common enquiries include:

• Submission of forms
• Payment enquiries
• General enquiries about the Incentive programs
• HPOS enquiries, RA number updates and notifications
• Duplicate payment advice requests
• WIP - Practice Stream health professional detail amendments

Service Officers are only required to upload email correspondence to the practice profile when:

• a change has been made to the practice details based on the correspondence
• information has been given to the practice which other Service Officers may need to refer to or be aware of

The Process page contains more details on how to determine if email correspondence should be uploaded.

See Associated documents and comments for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream for details on how to upload correspondence to the practice profile.

Staff must select the correct security classification for emails. Classification options are:

• OFFICIAL: for work-related information that may be released to the public, or where compromise of the information would result in no or insignificant damage
• OFFICIAL Sensitive: for work-related information that is not for public release or where compromise of the information would result in limited damage
• OFFICIAL Sensitive - Personal Privacy: At Services Australia, we apply this marking to information that could identify someone
• UNOFFICIAL: for personal, non-work-related information only

Service Officers must select the highest security classification that applies to both the email and any attachments.

See Security Markings for more details on email classification.

Personal, sensitive, or confidential information must not be sent using an unsecured email channel.

When replying to emails that contain personal, sensitive or confidential information, remove the original email and/or sensitive information from the email trail before sending your response.

The following are some examples of personal, sensitive or confidential details including but not limited to:

• patient information
• details of medical procedures
• financial information
• details of services used
• identifying staff details

When communication contains highly personal or sensitive details (including information from an original customer email), staff may need to consider using secure alternatives such as:

• post, or
• HPOS Mail (HPOS is a secured channel)

HPOS Mail should be prioritised as the preferred communication method, in line with the practice's nominated communication preferences. Where HPOS Mail is not available or cannot be used, correspondence should be issued via post. In these circumstances, a Free Text Letter may be required.

These are standard responses to common enquiries. They make sure messaging is consistent to all customers and meet the communication standards for Services Australia.

Service delivery staff must not change the template wording unless instructed by Local Peer Support (LPS), an Incentives Program Officer or Program Management.

The Resources page contains a list of template responses.

HPOS notifications occur when a practice makes updates to their practice profile through HPOS or sends messages via the HPOS Mail Centre.

PIP NO REPLY - HPOS Practice Updates

This is an automatic system-generated email and is sent when a practice uses HPOS to:

• update a relocation
• notify a change of practice ownership

PIP NO REPLY - HPOS Mail Centre Alerts

This is when a new message is received from a HPOS user in the HPOS Mail Centre. An email is generated in the Incentive Programs Delivery (IPD) PIP team's email box.

See Online services for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream for more information about practice updates via HPOS.

The Resources page contains details about PIP No Reply emails.

Email communication may be received from a variety of sources.

See Enquiry management for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream for details on who are Incentives customers.

Service Officers must only give practice or provider details to a person authorised to obtain it.

See Enquiry management for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream for details about who can access practice or provider details.

Customers may submit feedback to the agency via email. Feedback includes:

• complaints
• compliments, and
• suggestions

See Managing complaints and feedback for more details.

Requests for a review of decision may be received via email with or without a Practice Incentives Review of Decision form (IP027).

Upload all review of decision requests to PaNDA as Review of Decision-PIP/WIPPS (INC_PIP_WIP_REV_DEC).

See Enquiry management for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream for more details.