Practices will receive up to $50,000 a year for handing over de-identified patient data under the long-delayed Practice Incentive Program reforms designed to drive quality improvement.

The data will include general information on gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity, but also information such as the proportion of patients with diabetes with a current HbA1c result and the proportion of patients with a smoking status (see box).

However, as yet no detailed clinical data, such as patients’ actual HBA1C or blood pressure results, is being collected.

In return, GP practices will receive $5 per standardised whole patient equivalent (SWPE) per year — a measure of practices’ size used for various incentives already — capped at $12,500 per quarter.