GP clinics which signed up to the government’s new bulk billing practice incentive will have received their first payment under the program over the last few weeks.
The universal bulk-billing practices signed up to the Bulk Billing PIP received an average of almost $21,000 under the first two months of the program, The Medical Republic can reveal.
To be more specific, a total of $61,370,277.86 has been disbursed to 2949 of the practices signed up for the new incentive.
This averages out to payments of precisely $20,810.54 per practice for the first two months of the BB PIP.
Because the incentive came into effect in November, one month into the December financial quarter, it’s likely that the average payment for the next quarter will be substantially higher.
Each payment is worth 12.5% of the clinic’s total Medicare billings for that quarter, with 50% going to the practice and 50% going to individual doctors. The total Medicare billings are inclusive of any bulk-billing incentive items.
Sharp-eyed readers may note that there are more than 2949 practices signed up for the PIP; this is true.
By the end of December 2025, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing said there was a total of 3251 practices registered for the BB PIP.
Additional data released by DoHDA on Wednesday indicated that around 1270 of the practices registered for the BB PIP were previously mixed-billing clinics.
According to the department, some practices could not be paid in the initial run because they had not fully completed the registration or had not met the requirements of the program.
DoHDA said it was now working with Services Australia to contact these practices and “rectify issues to facilitate payments”.
Speaking at a senate estimates hearing on Thursday morning, DoHDA deputy secretary for health resourcing Penny Shakespeare confirmed that the program had been far more popular than internal government modelling had estimated.
According to a February 2025 impact analysis, the number of practices expected to sign up to the BB PIP in the 2025-26 financial year was just 1600; it was not expected to exceed 3200 until the 2026-27 financial year.
By the 2028-29 year, the number of practices on the BB PIP is expected to be 4814.
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According to Ms Shakespeare, a detailed evaluation plan for the program will start to be developed from this year, but won’t be put into action until 2027.
Practices which sign up to the BB PIP must commit to having all doctors bulk bill all MBS non-referred items for all Medicare-eligible patients, be signed up to MyMedicare and display certain signage.
BB PIP program guidelines specifically state that income from the payments will be treated as assessable income for taxation purposes unless specifically exempted.
“It is the practice and providers responsibility to determine any taxation obligations that arise from receiving these payments,” it reads.
“The department recommends seeking independent professional advice or contacting the Australian Taxation Office to discuss individual circumstances.”
The BB PIP is just one part of a two-pronged investment into bulk billing.
All GPs and practices, regardless of whether they participate in the BB PIP, can also claim tripled bulk billing incentives on eligible items when bulk billing any Medicare card holder.
Did your practice get significantly more or less than expected under the BB PIP? We’d like to hear about it; email Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
