• 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

Special arrangements for Indigenous Health Services not currently participating in the Practice Incentives Program (PIP)

Indigenous Health Services (IHS) not participating in the PIP arrangements who wish to participate in the PBS Co-payment Measure will need to meet a number of eligibility requirements and register to participate. There are two ways this can be done:

1. apply directly for the PBS Co-payment Measure; or
2. apply for the PBS Co-payment Measure through the PIP Indigenous Health Incentive (IHI).

1. Applying directly for the PBS Co-payment Measure

To apply directly for the PBS Co-payment Measure, the IHS will need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

• be a practice/Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service/clinic providing primary care services to a predominantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population;
• be a provider of Medicare rebated services;
• be classified by the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (‘RRMA’) Classification, 1991 Census Edition, as RRMA 1-5 (i.e. non-remote locations);
• agree to assess patient eligibility against the Measure’s patient eligibility criteria;
• agree to seek consent from eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and register them for the Measure; and
• agree to annotate PBS prescriptions for registered patients in the approved manner for the Measure.

If the practice meets the criteria, and decides to apply for the Measure through this avenue, the practice will need to complete an Indigenous Health Service Application to Participate in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Co-payment Measure form and lodge it with the Department of Health and Ageing. Please download this form, and the Patient Consent, Patient Registration and Patient Withdrawal of Consent forms from this site.

Please note that patients cannot be registered until the IHS receives written confirmation from the Department of Health and Ageing that the IHS is eligible to participate in the Measure.

2. Applying for the PBS Co-payment Measure through the PIP IHI

IHSs can also apply for the Measure by registering for the PIP IHI.

The IHS must be accredited, or registered for accreditation, against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for General Practices to participate in the PIP. IHSs that register for accreditation must be fully accredited within 12 months of joining the PIP to be able to continue receiving PIP payments. Accreditation against the RACGP Standards is offered through two companies – Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL) and GPA Accreditation Plus. To find out more about the accreditation process, contact AGPAL on 1300 362 111 or visit http://www.qip.com.au, or GPA Accreditation Plus on 1800 188 088 or visit https://www.gpa.net.au.

Support is available to help IHSs prepare for, and achieve, clinical and/or organisational accreditation through the Australian Government’s Establishing Quality Health Standards program (2007-08). To find out if an IHS is eligible to apply for support, contact the OATSIH Accreditation Information Line on 1800 723 676.

IHSs deciding to apply for the Measure in this way will first need to register for the PIP by completing a Practice Incentives Program and GPII application form. To request a copy of this form, IHSs will need to contact the PIP Enquiry Line at Medicare Australia on 1800 222 032.

Application forms for all incentives under the PIP, including the PIP IHI, can be lodged at the same time but will not be accepted without receipt of the PIP and GPII application form. Completed forms should be lodged with Medicare Australia. Patient registration forms for the PIP IHI are available on the Medicare Australia website at www.medicareaustralia.gov.au.

Patient eligibility criteria for the PBS Co-payment Measure apply in both options.Back to Top

Indigenous Health Services not currently participating in the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) (PDF 311KB)

Page currency, Latest update: 04 June, 2010

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