Service Incentive Payments (SIP) item numbers

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Overview

SIPs provide financial remuneration for evidence-based, best practice systems of care for patients with diabetes and asthma, and for prevention of disease through immunisation and Pap tests. The claiming of SIP item numbers through Medicare trigger additional ‘payments for quality’ (the application of best practice clinical guidelines) and are an important component of the blended payments system for general practice.

Medicare business rules stipulate that these services must be coordinated by the patient’s GP in order for the items to be claimable, though parts of the work can be delegated to an appropriately trained nurse, Aboriginal Health Worker and other allied health workers (such as a podiatrist), and can be coordinated through EPC Care Plans involving the community health sector in a partnership approach to care. Only certain types of patients render the practice eligible to receive SIPs. General practices must be participating in the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) to be eligible to receive SIP payments.

Note that the SIP payments when a GP completes immunisation schedules for children aged 0-4 and notifies the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) are not listed in the attachments, because they are not linked to the MBS item numbers. Further information about immunisation SIP payments can be found at the Medicare Australia website and also by contacting the local Division of General Practice.

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Service Incentive Payments MBS Item Numbers (21kb, pdf)

Service Incentive Payments MBS Web Links and Explanatory Notes (49kb, pdf)