Primary Care - Funding Streams - General Practice in Aged Care Incentive
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General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI)

The General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI) aims to improve access to continuous, quality primary care services for older people who live in residential aged care facilities.

Participating in the GPACI requires registration to the MyMedicare scheme by the Patient, Provider, and Practice. You can read more about MyMedicare in the Business and Practice Management section of this toolkit.

The GPACI has replaced a previous incentive program, the Practice Incentive Program General Practitioner Aged Care Access Incentive (GPACAI).

To be eligible for the GPACI payments, Responsible Providers must deliver at least 10 services from eligible MBS and Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) services over a 12-month period, including:

  • two eligible care planning services
  • two eligible regular services per quarter, each in a separate calendar month (minimum 8 in total for the full 12-month period).

There are both quarterly and 12-month service requirements.

For quarters 1 through to 3, the service requirements are the same.

To be eligible for GPACI payment at the end of quarters 1-3, both Providers and Practices must:

  • meet the eligibility requirements, and
  • have provided the Patient with two (2) eligible services within the quarter, in separate calendar months, where;
    • at least one (1) of the regular visits is provided by the Responsible Provider.

For quarter 4, there are additional service requirements to meet. These additional services are the 12-month service requirements.

To be eligible for GPACI payment at the end of quarter 4, both Providers and Practices must:

  • meet the eligibility requirements
  • have provided the Patient with two (2) eligible services within the quarter, in separate calendar months, where;
    • at least one (1) of the regular visits is provided by the Responsible Provider
  • have provided a total of eight (8) eligible regular services over the 12-month period, and
  • have provided two (2) eligible care planning items over the 12-month period, both delivered by the Responsible Provider.

Providers and Practices must complete the 12-month requirements by the end of the 12-month assessment period.

To be eligible for the GPACI payment at the end of quarter 4, both Providers and Practices must meet the 12-month requirements of at least:

  • two (2) eligible care planning items over the 12-month period, both delivered by the Responsible Provider
  • eight (8) eligible regular services over the 12-month period.

Eligible services that contribute towards quarterly assessments contribute towards 12-monthly servicing requirements.

Meeting these service and eligibility requirements, GPACI payments received are:

  • $300 per patient, per year ($75 per patient, per quarter) – to the Responsible Provider.
  • $130 per patient, per year (432.50 per patient, per quarter) – to the Practice.

Rural loadings are applied to both the Responsible Provider and the Practice for those in Modified Monash Model (MMM) regions of MMM3 to MMM7.

Eligible MBS Items

Medicare item numbers are subject to change. Please also refer to MBS Online for any updates.

Eligible care planning services

The following MBS items are considered eligible care planning services for the GPACI:

Eligible regular services

The following MBS items are considered eligible regular services for the GPACI:

Eligible regular telehealth services

The following MBS items are considered eligible regular services for practices located in MMM4-MMM7 for the GPACI:

Eligible DVA items

Eligible care planning services

The following DVA item numbers are considered eligible care planning services for the GPACI:

The full details for eligibility in the GPACI are described below:

  • Provider Eligibility

  • Practice Eligibility

  • Patient Eligibility

Eligibility for the GPACI payment requires Providers to be:

  • determined an eligible Responsible Provider (see Program Guidelines)
  • linked to the eligible practice, and
  • declared the Responsible Provider of eligible services to the eligible patient, including coordinating services provided by the care team.

Eligibility for the GPACI payment requires Practices to be:

Requirements for Patient Eligibility rely on the following actions by the Practice:

  • link providers and their MyMedicare-registered patients to their practice,
  • select the GPACI indicator on their patients’ MyMedicare profiles, and
  • link patients to their Responsible Provider at the practice.

Eligibility for the GPACI payment requires patients to:

  • permanently live in a residential aged care facility, not including respite care
  • register in MyMedicare with the eligible registered practice
  • have the GPACI indicator selected on the MyMedicare profile by their eligible registered practice, and
  • have a Responsible Provider identified by their eligible practice when the GPACI indicator is selected in the Organisation Register.

The GPACI is in addition to the existing fee-for-service and all existing Medicare rebates will continue to be paid.