General Practitioner Aged Care Access Incentive (GP ACAI) for Practice Incentives Program (PIP) 012-10150000

The PIP GP ACAI ended 31 July 2024.

• The last calculated PIP GP ACAI payment is August 2024
• Practitioners have 3 payment quarters to finalise any held payment/s. After this time, any held payment will be forfeited. Payments will re-run:
• November 2024
• February 2025
• May 2025

See the Resources page for a list of FAQs.

• To be eligible for the GP ACAI, GPs must provide a minimum number of eligible Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) services in Commonwealth-funded residential aged care facilities (RACF) in a financial year. This includes services provided to Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) patients
• There are 4 payment tiers. Each tier has a minimum qualifying service level (QSL) that must be met to generate a payment. The QSL is the minimum number of eligible MBS services a GP must provide for each payment tier. The GP services are cumulative over the financial year

See the Resources page for information about QSLs and eligible MBS items numbers.

Payments to bank accounts

• GP ACAI payments are paid to:
• the GP who provided the services, unless they make other arrangements
• the GP's nominated bank account in the next payment quarter, once the required number of services has been processed by Medicare
• To be eligible for the GP ACAI payments, the GP must:
• be registered as an associated GP with a general practice that is approved for PIP and meets the PIP eligibility requirements
• provide eligible MBS services to residents in RACFs
• reach the QSLs by providing the required number of MBS services in RACFs in a financial year
• provide MBS services using a Medicare provider number that is linked to a PIP practice
• A GP does not need to apply to participate in the GP ACAI. GPs who are eligible for payments must provide bank account details using General Practitioner Aged Care Access Incentive Payment banking details form (IP011)
• GPs can update their registered GP ACAI banking details or via Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) using their Provider Digital Access (PRODA) Account.
• Eligibility and payments are based on the services provided under the provider stem - it is not location specific

See Provider number for health professionals in Medicare for more details about the structure of a provider number.

• Information about GP ACAI payments can only be released to the GP who provides the services. Do not give payment details to a practice owner or authorised contact person who is not the ACAI GP
• Service Officers must perform a telephone security check before releasing any information
• Requests to add or update GP ACAI banking details must be confirmed with the GP before updating the form. Staff must:
• make 2 genuine attempts to contact the GP by phone before returning the form to the GP, and
• wait a minimum of 30 minutes between attempts to phone the GP
• The GP can give verbal consent to release details to another person. Service Officers must get verbal consent at the start of each call

See the Perform security check for Access to Patient Verification Information table for more details.

• Payment advices are sent to the GP’s preferred mailing address (PMA) as recorded in the Medicare Provider Directory System (PDS). GPs can update their PMA using HPOS
• General practitioners can request a duplicate payment advice in writing or verbally over the phone
• Payment advices are available for a period of up to 7 years. Requests for payment advices over 7 years cannot be accommodated

The Process page contains information about requesting a duplicate statement.