In 1999/2000 the Federal Government introduced Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) items to the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS). These items were designed to improve care of persons with chronic and/or complex conditions and to remunerate GPs for services including contributing to the care of such persons outside the normal face to face consultation process.

Since their introduction the EPC items have undergone some changes and have been joined by other items and incentives such as the Home Medicine Reviews, the diabetes and asthma Service Incentive Payments (SIPS), the Mental Health Three Step Process and, most recently, the Allied Health, Dental Care and Comprehensive Medical Assessment (in Residential Aged Care Facilities) items.

ADGP is currently seeking funding from the Department of Health and Ageing for the Divisions Network to assist general practice and others utilise the new Strengthening Medicare initiatives. In the meantime, and because this area is an important option available to GPs, many Divisions continue to provide some support for EPC. Similarly, ADGP provides the information on this page as part of its commitment to supporting growth in the capacity of general practice through efficiently and effectively adopting options such as EPC.

Information Sheets and Forms

Click here to view and download information sheets and forms on EPC Services and MBS Items.

Reducing Red Tape in EPC While paper forms for EPC items are made available here, ADGP highly recommends the use of interactive templates for GPs with full electronic patient records. The use of templates greatly reduces the time for GPs in filling out the forms associated with EPC and other items. ADGP through the sponsorship of Medibank Private makes templates for all such MBS items available on Medical Director. Unfortunately no other software vendors have taken up the offer to provide the templates through their products. The templates can be found in the Medibank GP Resource Centre by clicking the blue 'i' button on the Medical Director toolbar and then selecting from the suite of templates found under the heading 'CPC Templates' (CPC stands for Complete Primary Care).

Further Information

For information on Enhanced Primary Care services and MBS Items including the new items for Allied health, Dental Care and Comprehensive Medical Assessments in a Residential Aged Care Facility please see the following links:

General Practice Divisions Victoria (GPDV) EPC Resources - Click on 'Services and Resources' and then select 'Enhanced Primary Care'

Department of Health and Ageing EPC pages

ADGP webpages on Medicare Aged Care Initiative

ADGP news item and links on Allied Health and Dental Items