The federal government plans to introduce changes to the Practice Incentives Program eHealth incentive (ePIP) from next February that are likely to see general practices required to show evidence of meaningful use of the PCEHR to continue to receive payments, which can be worth up to $50,000 a year.

The Department of Health has released a discussion paper on proposed changes to the ePIP, with figures showing that while 72 per cent of all general practices were receiving ePIP payments in the 2013-2014 financial year, only 16 per cent were actually uploading clinical information to the system.