ePIP – eHealth Incentive Payment

South Western Sydney PHN supports practices to improve administration processes and patient care to become eligible for ePIP (eHealth Incentive Payment) practice support payments.

Benefits of ePIP

Financial incentive:

Receive up to $12,500 per quarter for participating in quality improvement activities, including ePIP.

Enhanced patient care:

Improve patient care and administrative efficiency.

Stay updated:

Keep up-to-date with the latest developments in digital health technologies.

How to apply for ePIP

To participate in a Services Australia's Practice Incentive Program and receive ePIP payments, the practice must be accredited, meet ePIP requirements and register for Service Australia’s Practice Incentive Program. This page provides an overview of these steps.

Practice accreditation

• Ensure your practice is accredited, or registered for accreditation, against the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Standards for general practices.
• Your practice must be assessed by an approved accrediting agency.

For more information, visit the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme (NGPA).

See Practice Accreditation for support options.

The five ePIP eligibility requirements

Accredited practices must meet all five of the following ePIP eligibility requirements before applying for eHealth Incentive Payments:

Requirement 1: Integrating healthcare identifiers:

• Apply to Services Australia to obtain a Healthcare Provider Identifier-Organisation (HPI–O).
• Ensure each GP has their Healthcare Provider Identifier-Individual (HPI–I) stored in compliant clinical software.
• Use compliant clinical software to access, retrieve, and store verified Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI) for presenting patients.
  > Step-by-step guide to enter HPI-I and HPI-O into MedicalDirector (by Brisbane South PHN)
  > Step-by-step guide to enter HPI-I and HPI-O into Best Practice (by Brisbane South PHN)

Requirement 2: Data records and clinical coding:

• Record most diagnoses for active patients electronically, and use a recognised medical vocabulary.
• Provide a written policy to this effect to all GPs within the practice.
  > Recommended: Use the RACGP template: Data Records and Coding Policy template

Requirement 3: Secure messaging capability:

• Have a standards-compliant secure messaging capability to electronically transmit and receive clinical messages.
• Use secure messaging where feasible and encourage its use through a written policy.
  > Recommended: Use the RACGP template: Practice policy on secure messaging capability

See Secure Messaging practice support.

Requirement 4: Electronic transfer of prescriptions:

• Ensure that most prescriptions are sent electronically to a Prescription Exchange Service (PES).
  SWSPHN usually recommends the largest vendor, which is eRX

See Electronic Prescription practice support.

Requirement 5: Upload shared health summaries to My Health Record:

• Use compliant software for accessing My Health Record and creating and posting shared health summaries and event summaries.
• Upload a shared health summary for a minimum of 0.5% of the practice’s standardised whole patient equivalent (SWPE) count of patients per PIP payment quarter.
  > See below ePIP Shared Health Summary Calculator
  > See below guides on how to upload Shared Health Summary using your clinical software

> Read SWSPHN’s guide to identifying patients and setting up shared health summaries

See My Health Record practice support.

Apply for the Practice Incentives Program:

Apply for the ePIP through HPOS using your PKI certificate or Provider Digital Access (PRODA) account details.

Go to Human Services HPOS
Go to Service Australia application page
For details, visit Services Australia PIP

Recommended ePIP resources

Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) ePIP resources:

Search for ePIP on ADHA's website.

Learn more about the My Health Record Strategy and register for access.

Human Services

• Apply for the Practice Incentive Program: Human Services PIP.
• ePIP guidelines details eligibility criteria, practice obligations, and how to apply. Download Guidelines (8 pages | Word | 30.5kb).

SWSPHN support

Please contact your Practice Advancement Officer or Practice Support Officer for all of your accreditation and digital health enquiries.

Contact us:
Phone: 4632 3000
Email: enquiries@swsphn.com.au