Practice relocation for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-10010040

A relocation for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream is:

• when the practice’s location has changed, and
• the new location is established as a place of business, and
• medical practitioner and eligible health professionals have been providing services and billing MBS

The following requirements must be met:

• Current accreditation must be transferred to the new premises and accreditation status retained under the National General Practice Accreditation Schemes
• All current practitioners moving from the practice must obtain a provider number associated with the new practice address
• The old location is no longer operating as a medical practice. Note: this does not include where a new, unrelated practice operating under different ownership opens in the old location after the relocating practice has left the premises

A Practice can relocate to any location regardless of distance. However, if the practice wants to transfer the historical Standardised Whole Patient Equivalent (SWPE) value, it must relocate within the same local area as the original location. See effect of a relocation on the SWPE below for more information.

Relocating practices issued with a new accredited or registered for accreditation certificate must re-apply for the PIP and/or WIP – Practice Stream as a new practice.

Do not process a relocation during a calculation month. See Payments for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream for more information.

To notify a practice relocation, the practice must submit the following forms:

• Practice Incentives Change of practice details (IP005) form
• all pages of the form must be received
• the practice must complete the practice details, relocation questions and eligibility section. Other questions will depend on the changes being notified
• the declaration must be signed by an owner of the practice registered on the practice profile
• Practice Incentives Individual general practitioner, nurse practitioner or health professional details (IP003) forms
• for all practitioners who join the practice or move to new relocation address
• If only one IP003 form is received, Services Australia can complete the relocation process. Tell the practice they must check all current practitioners are added to the practice profile
• all current practitioners moving to the new location must get a provider numbers for the relocated practice address
• Accreditation certificate, the practice must contact their accreditation agency to confirm that they still meet the rules for accreditation at the new location. The practice must provide an accreditation certificate showing the relocated practice address within 6 months of the date of relocation. Practice payments will be placed on hold until an updated accreditation certificate for the new location is provided

See also:

• Payments for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream
• Practice accreditation for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream

Practices can use HPOS to notify a practice relocation. The PIP and WIP – Practice Stream on-line system will immediately place payments on hold. Payments will remain on hold until an IP005 and supporting documentation, including the relocated accreditation certificate is submitted.

Practices using HPOS to notify a relocation will see a warning message, telling them practice payments are on hold and an IP005 must be submitted. If the practice is a PIP consenting WIP – Practice Stream practice, the automatic payment hold will apply to WIP -Practice Stream payments also.

Where a practice has correctly updated all current practitioners in HPOS as part of an online relocation, IP003’s are not required.

Practices in RRMA 3-7 with procedural GPs need to submit IP003 forms to transfer procedural GP payment tiers to the new provider number/s.

See the Resources page for scenarios about a practice creating an additional location in HPOS instead of relocating the main location.

A practice can use the IP005 form to notify of multiple changes to practice details. A relocation may be notified with:

• an amalgamation
• updating practice bank account details
• a change of authorised contact persons, and/or
• ceasing a general practitioner or nurse practitioner
• updating WIP – Practice Stream health professional details

If the practice notifies of a relocation and amalgamation, the change with the earliest date must be assessed and processed first. For example, if the date of relocation is before the date of amalgamation, assess and process the relocation first. Then process the amalgamation. If they occurred on the same day, process the amalgamation first.

If a practice relocates and amalgamates with a non-PIP practice, see the Resources page for more information on document requirements.

Practice amalgamation for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream has more information about assessing and processing an amalgamation.

If a practice changes ownership as part of the relocation, the practice must also submit:

• the Practice Incentives Change of practice ownership form (IP010), and
• supporting documents

Action the practice updates in the order of when they occurred. If the changes occurred on the same date, process the change of ownership first.

The Process page has more information about processing a relocation including other changes.

An address update is different to a relocation. An address update is when the practice does not physically move premises.

The address change is due to:

• a rezoning/renumbering by the council
• the re-numbering of a shopping complex
• an administrative error made by the practice, or
• errors in the practice details in PIP/WIP - Practice Stream Online. For example, an address variance

The practice must provide a signed letter from the practice owners. It must include:

• practice name and practice ID number
• confirmation of the address update
• the updated practice address
• documents to support the change, such as a letter from the council
• the signature of at least 1 registered owner
• an accreditation certificate that shows the updated practice address

Practitioners do not need a new provider number. They must change the address linked to their provider number before submitting the update. To do this, they contact Medicare Provider Registration. Provider number addresses must be updated before the address update is actioned.

To update an address, escalate to the Local Peer Support (LPS). Do not escalate for an address update until all provider addresses have been updated to reflect the correct address.

Do not accept a Practice Incentives Change of practice details (IP005) form for an address update, unless there are documents to support the change.

See also Forms and letters for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream.

Moving to new premises within the same shopping centre is not an address update. The practice has physically moved to a new location. This must be assessed as a relocation. The practice must complete an IP005 and provide supporting documents.

With this type of move, Medicare will often update the provider location address in PDS rather than issue a new provider number. Generally, this is acceptable. Escalate to LPS for confirmation.

While this is assessed as a relocation, if new provider numbers are not issued, process as an address update.

A practice can transfer their Standardised Whole Patient Equivalent (SWPE) value when they meet the below criteria:

• The old location is not operating as a general medical practice
• The patient base is the same
• All patient records are at the new location
• Both the original and new locations are in the same local area
• The practice accreditation has been relocated to the new practice address

A practice can relocate to any location regardless of distance. To be able to transfer their historical SWPE value, it must relocate within the same local area as the original practice. The definition of 'local area' is assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Relocations to a different suburb or post code area must be escalated to Program Management via LPS for assessment. Program Management (Policy) will determine eligibility to retain the historical SWPE.

Note: if a new practice opens at the location after the practice has relocated and is not associated with the practice, the historical SWPE value can usually be transferred to the relocated practice. Escalate to Policy team via LPS for assessment. For more details, see relocation scenarios on the Resources page.

A temporary relocation occurs when a practice moves to an interim location. This could be due to their premises being temporarily unusable or an existing location needing to be vacated before a new permanent location is available.

Program Management (Policy) will refer all temporary relocation requests to the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) for a determination on continued practice eligibility for the PIP and/or WIP – Practice Stream. DoHAC will assess these requests on a case-by-case basis.

A practice undergoing a temporary relocation must notify their accrediting agency of the temporary relocation and confirm they continue to meet the accreditation requirements at the temporary location. This information will be used by DoHAC when making their decision. Non-compliance with these standards may affect eligibility for Incentives payments.

Practices temporarily relocating will generally not transfer their accreditation certificate to the temporary address.

Practitioners at the practice must either obtain provider numbers for the new location or have their existing provider address updated to reflect the temporary location. In very rare cases there can be exceptions to this rule but that would require a determination being made by DoHAC.

If a temporary relocation is approved by DoHAC, the main practice location will not be updated to reflect the temporary address. Policy team will provide instructions on the information to be updated on the practice profile.

For more details, see relocation scenarios on the Resources page.