Enquiry management for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream 012-10010140

• Business owners of medical practices and their staff, including:
• Practice Managers
• Receptionists
• Medical Practitioners
• Practice Nurses check a
• Other Health professionals
• Persons who are nominated on behalf of business owners
• General Public
• Primary health networks (PHN) - organisations that work directly with GPs to improve access to primary care services to patients

Services Australia staff

• Medicare Engagement Officer (MEO)

The Process page contains details about verifying the caller’s identity and identifying a staff member.

Telephone enquiries can include:

• general enquiries about the PIP and WIP – Practice Stream programs
• eligibility questions
• how to apply
• payment enquiries
• what form to complete
• notification of changes to existing registrations
• how to use online services
• adding a user’s RA number to the practice profile

Direct customers to the specific area of the guidelines where appropriate. The Resources page has a link to the guidelines.

See General Practitioner Aged Care Access Incentive (GP ACAI) for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) for information on managing calls about the PIP GP ACAI.

Service Officers may be required to make outbound calls to PIP and WIP – Practice Stream practices as part of their general work.

Reasons for outbound calls may include:

• confirming an update to practice banking details
• confirming information in a form or notification
• as part of the email triage process

For information about acceptable Services Australia greetings and other telephony requirements, see Telephone standards for Medicare and Health Delivery.

Service Officers making outbound calls must confirm the identity of the person they are speaking to at the beginning of the call, Details of the call must be recorded in a PaNDA processing note. Where staff are confirming information verbally, they must also record call details as a profile comment. For more information see Associated documents and comments for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) - Practice Stream.

The call record must include:

• date and time of call (required for both successful and unsuccessful calls)
• who they spoke to (person’s name)
• any information received or given
• if a message was left or a callback is required

The Process page has steps on how to perform a security check.

There is no form to update or change a practice name except as part of a:

• change of ownership
• relocation, or
• amalgamation

To change or amend a practice name as a standalone update, an owner of the practice must request the change in writing. The written request must include:

• Practice ID
• New Practice name
• Full practice address
• Signature of a practice owner registered on the practice profile

A signature is not required if an owner of the practice sends the request via HPOS messages and their RA number is linked to the practice profile. See the Process page for steps on how to confirm the sender’s RA number.

If a practice advises of a spelling or data entry error, the correct information can be accepted verbally from:

• an authorised contact person, or
• registered practice owner

For verbal updates, the caller requesting the correction must pass a security check, see the Process page for more information. The details of the call must be documented in a profile comment.

To advise the changes in writing, an owner or authorised contact person must write to the agency on the practice letterhead and include:

• Practice ID
• Practice name
• Correct spelling of the incorrect information
• Signature of the owner or authorised contact person

A signature is not required if:

• an authorised contact person or owner of the practice sends the request via HPOS messages, and
• their RA number is linked to the practice profile. See the Process page for steps on how to confirm the sender’s RA number

If there are changes to the owners listed on the Ownership Details screen, a Practice Incentives Change of practice ownership form (IP010) must be completed.

The Resources page has a list of spelling and data entry errors that can be accepted verbally.

Information can only be released to practice owner/s or authorised contact persons.

• Staff must only give detailed practice information to practice owner/s or authorised contact persons registered on the practice profile. Authorised contact persons are nominated by the owner/s to act on the owner’s behalf for PIP and/or WIP - Practice stream
• Before releasing information to a customer, staff must conduct a security check for both inbound and outbound calls
• Do not provide payment details from a quarterly payment advice until the payment status is showing as ‘Paid’. The information on the payment advice is not final until the payment status is ‘Paid’.

See the Process page for more details about how to check a practice’s owner or authorised contact persons and how to perform a security check..

Medicare Engagement Officers (MEOs)

• MEOs may seek information from Incentives Programs staff
• Staff must perform a security check before releasing any information to a MEO:
• the Process page contains information about telephone security checks for MEOs
• the Resources page contains information about releasing practice information to AIR MEOs

• Service Officers must try to finalise an enquiry at the first point of contact
• If the Service Officer cannot resolve the enquiry but another business area within the agency should be able to, direct the call to the correct business area or person
• Provide the actual business line phone number to the customer in case they get disconnected during the transfer and for future enquiries. Note: do not give out a direct phone numbers for staff members
• Use the ‘internal transfer number’ to transfer calls for other areas of the agency

There is no requirement to ‘warm’ transfer calls to other areas of the agency.

Program Management staff may leave messages with customers telling them to call the 1800 number. These calls can be warm transferred to Program Management staff using the staff member’s full MS Teams phone number.

Before transferring calls to Program Management staff, service delivery staff must send a MS Teams message to confirm Program Management is available to take the call. Do not transfer calls without first confirming Program Management availability.

Interpreters help customers who speak a language other than English conduct their business with Services Australia.

See Interpreter Services for more details.

A customer can submit feedback to the agency. Feedback includes:

• complaints
• compliments, and
• suggestions

The agency’s webpage has more information on how customers can submit:

• Complaints, and
• feedback

See Managing complaints and feedback for more details.

Health Service Delivery uses a Technical Support Model that includes Local Peer Support (LPS).

Before contacting LPS, staff must check all available reference material. This includes:

• Operational Blueprint
• Current operational messages
• Training Manuals
• Guidelines
• News for Health Professionals
• PaNDA for any relevant processing notes
• PIP / WIP - Practice Stream Online - Comments and Associated documents for previous communication that may be relevant to the enquiry

If the enquiry cannot be resolved immediately, take a message and follow up with the customer later.

For more information on contacting LPS for support, see Tier 0 technical support - self-sufficiency.

Practice owners and authorised contact persons with a PRODA account can link their RA number to the PIP and/or WIP – Practice Stream profile. Linking their PRODA RA number will grant access to the practice profile/s via HPOS.

Most practice changes and updates can be done online in HPOS. Most of these updates do not require a form. See the Resources page for HPOS changes that require a form or additional information.

Correspondence (excluding forms) requiring a signature can be accepted as ‘signed’ by the owner/authorised contact if it is sent via HPOS messaging from the owner/authorised contact’s individual RA number.

For more information on online access and linking RA numbers, see Online Services for PIP and WIP - Practice Stream.

RA numbers for general practitioners (GPs) can be added for the individual GPs when using HPOS. Adding a RA number against the GP does not grant them access to practice information.

If the GP is also an authorised contact or practice owner they must have their RA number linked under these headings to access the practice information online.

Education resources for health professionals are available on the Health Professional Education Resources website.

Resources include:

• eLearning modules
• infographics
• simulations
• booklets
• podcasts

The HPE team:

• create educational resources for health professionals on health programs administered by Services Australia
• work with internal and external stakeholders
• manage the Health Professional Education Resources website

The Resources page contains a link to the Health Professional Education Resources website.

For more information see Education resources for health professionals.

• The Department of Health and Aged Care complete audit and compliance activities
• A customer should contact the relevant area to discuss any audit or compliance enquiries. A customer can find the relevant contact details on the correspondence they get.
• Customers may still call and enquire about these matters
• The Process page has more information about handling audit and compliance enquiries.

• The PIP and WIP - Practice Stream has a Review of Decision (RPD) process. This is separate to reviews relating to audit and compliance processes
• Decisions are based on the published guidelines at the date of the event
• An owner or authorised contact person must submit a completed Practice Incentives Review of Decision (IP027) form within 28 days of receiving the decision they want reviewed. All supporting information must be submitted with the IP027
• Practice correspondence requesting a review of a particular decision can be accepted without the IP027. Upload correspondence requesting a ROD to PaNDA as Review of Decision – PIP/WIPPS (INC_PIP_WIP_REV_DEC)
• The ROD process is managed by Program Management Payments team

The Resources page has a list of review of decision FAQs.

The final edition of the quarterly INU was published in May 2024. Archived versions of the INU are on the National Library of Australia website. Search for ‘Practice Incentives Program quarterly news updates’ and the year.

Important updates and information for PIP and WIP – Practice Stream customers is now published on the Latest changes and news for health professionals page. The page has instructions on how to subscribe to make sure important messages are not missed. The Resources page has a link.