eHealth Practice Incentive Program Incentive (ePIP)

The Practice Incentives Program (PIP) eHealth Incentive aims to encourage general practices to keep up to date with the latest developments in digital health and adopt new digital health technology as it becomes available. It aims to help practices improve administration processes and patient care. To be eligible for the PIP eHealth Incentive, practices must be registered in the PIP and meet each of the five eligibility requirements below. The requirements for this incentive support the direction of the Australian Government’s My Health Record Strategy.

Requirement 1 - Integrating Healthcare Identifiers into Electronic Practice Records

Requirement 2 - Secure Messaging Capability

Requirement 3 - Data Records and Clinical Coding

Requirement 4 - Electronic Transfers of Prescriptions

Requirement 5 - My Health Record system

From 1 May 2016, as an additional component of the fifth requirement, the General Practices are required to upload Shared Health Summaries (SHS) for a minimum of 0.5% of the practice’s Standard Whole Patient Equivalent (SWPE) to be eligible for the PIP eHealth Incentive. For example, if a practice has a SWPE of 1,000, the practice’s minimum SHS upload target will be 5 per quarter.

For more information and the Practice Incentive Program guidelines, visit: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/services/medicare/practice-incentives-program