The Workforce Incentive Program
The Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) provides targeted financial incentives to encourage doctors to deliver services in rural and remote areas and thereby giving patients in these areas, improved access to quality primary health care.
Better targeted incentives help to strengthen team-based and multi-disciplinary models of care, by supporting general practices to engage nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners and health workers, and eligible allied health professionals.
Eligibility
The WIP uses the Modified Monash Model (MMM) 2019 geographical classification system to calculate payments for the WIP and targets areas that experience greater difficulty in attracting and retaining staff.
The MMM classification of a medical practitioner or practice location can be found using the Health Workforce Locator on the DoctorConnect website here.
- For the WIP – Doctor Stream, eligible services are based on the practice or outreach location, regardless of the medical practitioner or patient address.
- For the WIP – Practice Stream, the practice location is the address that is nominated as the practice’s main location.
Guidelines
The Guidelines set out how the Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) operates including eligibility, how to apply and how payments are calculated. The WIP has two streams:
- the WIP – Doctor Stream where payments are made directly to medical
practitioners - effective 1 January 2020. - the WIP – Practice Stream where payments are made directly to practices - effective 1 February 2020.
General practices and doctors participating in the Practice Nurse Incentive Program (PNIP) and the General Practice Rural Incentives Program (GPRIP) will automatically transition to the WIP.