PIP payments fall $1.5 million after govt imposes ‘unfair’ telehealth rule
The Federal Government is excluding telehealth consults from its calculations
GP practices are losing income from the $350 million Practice Incentives Program because health officials are “underestimating” their patient load by ignoring consults they are doing via telehealth.
Under the system, the Department of Health calculates a number of the incentives based on patient load measured in Standardised Whole Patient Equivalents (SWPEs).
However, Dr David Ringelblum says his Melbourne practice, which he part owns, has seen an 11% drop in its SWPE because only the care provided face-to-face is being counted.
As a result, the practice’s payments have fallen 26% in the past three months, compared with a year earlier, despite seeing almost an identical number of patients.
