More than 114,000 aged care residents have registered for the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPIACI) in its first year, well ahead of Government forecasts of 89,000 residents - and despite a Government report highlighting flaws in the system.
Under the GPACI, GPs receive incentive payments for providing care to registered patients who must be aged care residents. The GP, their practice, and the patient must all be registered with MyMedicare.
The new system was intended to make it easier for aged care residents to receive regular visits from a GP, and has advantages for GPs over the former system, for example, there is no upper cap on how much GPs can earn under the incentive. The GPACI replaced the Practice Incentive Payment – Aged Care Incentive in July 2024.
However, monitoring by Nous Group, under a three-year, $1.7 million contract with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, found "GP dissatisfaction" with the incentive, as well as findings of burdensome administration associated with the scheme. Nous Group's monitoring found only 20% of aged care residents retained their GP after they moved into residential aged care.
However, Nous also found "strong initial uptake" of the incentive. In the first five months, 82,000 residents were registered under the scheme.
A survey conducted by NewsGP last year showed 54% of GPs would not provide aged care services regardless of the incentive.
