General Practice in Aged Care Incentive

Practice:  

Registered in: 

1. Organisation Register in HPOS  
2. MyMedicare program and, 
3. General Practice in Aged Care Incentive 

Practices who have a current accreditation exemption for the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP) are not eligible to participate in GPACI.  

Responsible providers: A ‘Responsible Provider’ is a provider who is responsible for coordinating the delivery of eligible services to the registered patient as part of the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive. This includes services provided by other health professionals at the practice as part of the servicing requirements of the incentive.  

To be eligible for payment, Responsible Providers must: 

1. Be an eligible primary care provider as outlined in the Program Guidelines 
2. Linked to their eligible practices 
3. Declared as the responsible provider of eligible services to the registered patient, including coordinating services provided by the care team or practice. 

Patient:  

1. Permanently live in a residential aged care home 
2. Registered in MyMedicare with the eligible registered practice   
3. Have the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive indicator selected on their MyMedicare profile by their practice  
4. Have a responsible provider identified by the practice when a General Practice in Aged Care Incentive indicator has been selected. 

What practices need to do:

1. Register the practice with MyMedicare  
2. Register individual providers and ensure they are linked to the practice in PRODA 
3. Encourage patients to register using one of these 3 methods: the practice initiates online registration, practice pre-fill paper registration forms, or promote patient self-registration via the Express Plus Mobile Medicare App. 
4. Register the practice for GPACI.  
5. Link your RACH patients.  

For more information on registering your practice, visit the Services Australia Health Professional Education website. This website has a range of eLearning modules to guide you through the registration process. 

Payments are made quarterly: 

1. $300 per patient, per year, paid to the responsible provider
2. $130 per patient, per year, paid to the practice 

The incentive payments will be quarterly, on top of existing Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) and Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) rebates for services delivered.  

Rural loadings on provider and practice payments will apply to GPs and practices located in Modified Monash Model (MMM) regions MMM 3 to MMM 7:

To meet the servicing requirements of the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive, providers and practices must deliver at least 10 eligible services, from eligible MBS and Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) funded services, over a 12-month period including:  

1. 2 eligible care planning services delivered by the Responsible Provider  
2. 8 eligible regular services comprising of at least 2 per quarter, each in a separate calendar month 

Eligible services must be claimed using the Medicare Provider Number linked to the registered practice.

In any given assessment period, providers and practices must meet both eligibility and servicing requirements in order to receive GPACI for that period. These assessment periods are defined as quarters, commencing on the first day of July, September, January, and April.  

GPACI services for an aged care resident can begin at any time but incentive payments will only commence once the minimum service requirements are met for the qualifying period. If the second care planning service cannot be delivered within 12 months since commencing eligible services, the fourth quarter payment will not be paid. However, providers can continue to provide GPACI-eligible services in future quarters. 

Services Australia will commence assessment of eligible services 5 days after the end of the previous quarter.  Once Services Australia are satisfied that the service criteria have been met payments will be paid to the bank account nominated in MyMedicare.   

Payment advice will be sent via HPOS.  Practices or providers will be notified via HPOS if a payment fails due to missing or incorrect bank account details and will receive this payment once the details are updated.  

Services Australia has published infographics and eLearning modules on GPACI for providers to familiarise themselves with the Incentive: 

• Tip sheet to ensure correct payments 

• MyMedicare payments – Provider view 

• MyMedicare payments – Organisation view 

• Troubleshooting failed payments and cancelled notifications 

• Fact Sheets and patient journeys  

GPs and practices  

• GPACI – FAQ for GPs and Practices  
• GP & Practice Information Kit 
• Care plan contribution template 
• Patient front sheet template 
• Patient monitoring and tracking tool  
• GPACI Incentive payment structure  
• GPACI Vodcasts
• Services Australia GPACI education portal

Aged Care residents, their families are carers 

• GPACI FAQ – for aged care residents and carers  
• Aged Care Residents information booklet  

Residential age care providers 

• GPACI FAQ – for Residential aged care providers 
• Residential aged care provider information kit