On Monday 1 July 2024 the new General Practice in Aged Care Incentive commenced, providing incentive payments to practices and GPs for delivering regular visits and care planning to older people living in residential aged care.
Eligible practices that meet the definition of a general practice can now register for the incentive and link their residential aged care patients to the incentive.
New Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are now available for aged care providers, GPs and practices, and consumers and carers.
New incentive forecasting function
General practices can keep track of which patients have met or not met the minimum quarterly service requirements for the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive using the incentive forecast function in HPOS. Check out the new e-learning module on how to use this function.
Accreditation and exemptions for non-traditional practices
Some GPs that deliver care to residential aged care homes operate as sole providers and mobile practices and until recently were not eligible for accreditation under the RACGP accreditation standards.
Following consultation, the definition of a general practice has been expanded by RACGP, providing an opportunity for more practices to benefit from enhanced quality and safety and practice incentive payments.
The RACGP interpretative guide for non-traditional general practices for the purposes of accreditation provides general practices and accreditation assessors information to understand how the RACGP 5th Edition standards apply to general practices previously not eligible for accreditation. The interpretive guide outlines how indicators in the standards may apply differently or may not be relevant to non-traditional practices and those without a physical clinic premises.
Whilst MyMedicare, and the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive require a practice to be accredited, an exemption is in place until 30 June 2025.
This will enable ‘non-traditional practices’ such as mobile general practitioners providing essential visiting services to residential aged care homes to participate in MyMedicare, and the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive.
Follow the links below to:
- Register your organisation with Services Australia, and
- Register for the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive.
Non-traditional practices do not need to indicate their intention to become accredited to register and participate during the exemption period.
WA Primary Health Alliance will provide updates about the accreditation pathway and process for non-traditional practices as more information is made available by accreditation agencies.
Other useful links and information