MEDICUS FEBRUARY 2016

O P I N I O N

New PIP requirement betrays blinkered approach Dr Tim Koh Chair, RACGP WA Chair, 58 th RACGP Council

T roubling news arrived for general practices over the festive period with a government announcement that the eHealth Practice Incentive Payment (PIP) will include a new requirement for practices to upload a quota of health summaries to the My Health Record system. This change will come into effect from May 2016. My Health Record is the re-branded Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) that has struggled to gain traction with both the medical community and the broader public despite significant commitment of government funds to date. As a working GP, I am in favour of the concept of an eHealth shared record, however I have reservations

about the methods being used to increase uploads of the summary. At the heart of the issue is a lack of understanding that for an eHealth summary to be meaningful, it requires buy-in and commitment from both patients and their GPs. Most GPs work as contractors to practices and as such are not remunerated by the PIP; an incentive that was introduced for practices to stay up-to-date with technology systems and infrastructure. As a consequence, it will be practices that will choose if and how they will participate in this process. This may mean that practices choose to forgo the PIP or alternatively choose the easiest route to ensure that the criteria are met.

on a quota of patients, there is no incentive to ensure that the My Health Record is uploaded for patients where it would be meaningful or helpful. For example, the quota does not reward practices choosing to upload records of patients with minimal medical issues and medications any differently to complex multi-morbidity patients who would actually have significantly more benefit from a shared eHealth summary. Both the AMA and the RACGP have raised concerns about these changes to the PIP. It is always troubling when policy is changed without careful consultation with the profession. It is difficult to foresee a well-used and meaningful eHealth summary ahead until there is willing buy-in from the medical profession. ■

Given that the payment is based only

GENERAL PRACTICE

Applications for the 2017 Australian GP Training (AGPT) program open from: Monday 11 April - Friday 9 May 2016

To apply go to: agpt.com.au For more information contact (08) 9473 8200 or gpcareers@wagpet.com.au

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