• Home
• Indigenous Chronic
  Disease Package
• Tackling Chronic Disease
  Risk Factors
  • National action to reduce Indigenous smoking rate
  • Helping Indigenous Australians to reduce their risk of chronic disease
  • Local Indigenous community campaigns to promote better health
• Improving Chronic Disease
  Management and Follow up
  • Subsidising PBS medicine co-payments
  • Higher utilisation costs for MBS and PBS
  • Supporting primary care providers to coordinate chronic disease management
  • Improving Indigenous participation in health care through chronic disease self management
  • Increasing specialist and allied health follow up care
  • Monitoring and evaluation
• Workforce Expansion,
  Training and Support
  • Workforce education and training
  • Expanding the outreach and service capacity of Indigenous health services
  • Engaging Medicare Locals to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care
  • Attracting more people to work in Indigenous Health
  • Clinical practice and decision support

Indigenous Chronic Disease Package

Better primary health care

prev page| TOC |next page

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are benefiting from additional support to stayhealthy and manage chronic conditions. This includes assistance with the cost of medicinesand access to follow-up health care such as specialists and allied heath professionals.

Expanding the Practice Incentives Program (PIP)

Accredited Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, other Indigenous HealthServices and general practices are benefiting from new financial incentives that are beingdelivered through the existing Practice Incentives Program (PIP). In combination withthe other programs outlined, these incentives are assisting Indigenous Health Servicesand general practices to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with earlydiagnosis, proactive follow-up care and access to best practice management of chronicconditions.

The PIP Indigenous Health Incentive:

• This measure improves the care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeople aged 15 years and over, who have a chronic disease.
• Accredited Indigenous Health Services and general practices needto register with Medicare Australia in order to participate in the PIPIndigenous Health Incentive.
• Indigenous Health Services and general practices must register theireligible clients in order to receive the benefit.
• Payments are available to eligible Indigenous Health Services and generalpractices that undertake certain activities to improve the care of Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander people.

Three types of payments are available:

• Sign-on payment: a one-off payment of $1,000 to practices and services that join theincentive and agree to undertake specified activities to improve the provision of care totheir Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with chronic disease.
• Patient registration payment: $250 to practices and services for each Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander patient aged 15 years and over, registered with the practice forchronic disease management in a calendar year.
• Outcomes payments:
  Tier 1 - $100 to practices and services for each registered patient for whom atarget level of care is provided by the practice in a calendar year.
  Tier 2 - $150 to practices and services for each registered patient for whom themajority of care is provided by the practice within a calendar year.
• The first PIP Indigenous Health Incentive payments were made to eligible practices andIndigenous Health Services in May 2010.

Access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines

General practices participating in the PIP Indigenous Health Incentive, and allnon-remote Indigenous Health Services, can register eligible Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people for assistance with the cost of PBS medicines.This initiative allows many more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people inmetropolitan and regional centres throughout Australia to access more affordable,and in some instances, free PBS medicines. This assistance is already available throughremote Indigenous Health Services.

The PBS Co-payment Measure:

• This measure is available to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeople attending Indigenous Health Services, as well as general practicesparticipating in the PIP Indigenous Health Incentive. This measure istargeted to those with, or at risk of, chronic disease who may need additionalassistance to access appropriate medications.
• Clients need to be registered for the measure by their Indigenous HealthService or general practice.
• Prescribers at participating Indigenous Health Services, general practicesand medical specialists to whom registered patients have been referredmay annotate PBS prescriptions for registered clients. Patient eligibility isassessed as part of this process.
• Annotated prescriptions are dispensed by pharmacies at the lower co-payment.
• People who would normally pay full price now pay the concessional rateper prescription – $5.40 as at 1 January 2010.
• Clients who would normally pay the concessional rate receive theirmedicines free of charge.

Mandatory patient premiums for some brands of medicines still apply.

prev page| TOC |next page

Page currency, Latest update: 09 December, 2010

• Useful links
• Contact us
• Copyright
• Linking to this site
• Disclaimer
• Privacy
• Accessibility