COVID-19: fee changes for family physicians 

Changes have been made to some GPSC fees and to LTC and Palliative care facility visit requirements to facilitate the care of all patients during the COVID pandemic. Claim note records stating the service was provided by Telehealth are required.

The following provides an overview of the fee changes:

• GPSC Planning fees for complex care, frailty, mental health, and palliative care (14033,14075, 14043, 14063): All face-to-face planning required under GPSC planning fees may now be provided through telehealth – video or phone.
• Mental health management fees that currently allow videoconferencing have been expanded to include telephone counselling. Physicians should continue to use their professional judgement to determine whether use of virtual technology is clinically appropriate based on the circumstances of each patient.
• Long Term Care Facility fees. Physicians may bill the LTC facility visit fee 00114  when using video or telephone to provide a patient visit.   If the patient is unable to independently use a phone you may review their medical status and any problems by telephone with an RN/LPN at the Long Term Care facility.  In the latter case, the claim record note must state the service was provided by Telehealth with RN/LPN.  13334 is not billable in addition when 00114 is provided by Telehealth.
• Palliative Care Patient Facility visit fee. Physicians may bill the Palliative Patient facility visit fee 00127 when using video or telephone to provide a patient visit.  If the patient is unable to independently use a phone you may review their medical status and any problems by telephone with an RN/LPN at the facility and bill the 00127.  In the latter case the claim note record must state the service was provided by Telehealth with RN/LPN.  13338 is not billable in addition when 00127 is provided by Telehealth.

These are the latest in a series of billing changes related to COVID-19, many of which support increased use of virtual care to keep patients and physicians safe.  Detailed information on the GPSC fees and other billing changes can be found here.

New, time-limited fees are under discussion to better enable communication between providers, and between providers and their patients. More information will be shared when available.

Webinars and support

A webinar on the April 1 GPSC fee changes and COVID-19 fee changes for family physicians is scheduled for Monday, March 30th at 6:00 p.m. You can register here.

For more information and further updates, please visit our COVID-19 billing page.

Helping physicians use virtual care

With changes to enable greater use of virtual care, the Doctors of Technology Office (funded by the GPSC) is providing a range of supports for physicians to get started and/or optimize use of telephone and video to provide patient care.

They include:

 Virtual care quick start guide

• Recorded webinar – “Virtual Care Quick Start Session”
• Virtual care toolkit – Information to help clinics quickly set up virtual care
• Virtual care FAQ – for patients
• Patient notification poster – for clinics moving to virtual care

DTO offers weekly drop-in sessions to hear from physicians on their needs and feedback every Thursday at 7:15 a.m. You can join here.

All of this information, and more, can be found here.

Physicians: information on federal and provincial programs for individuals and small businesses

The federal and provincial governments have announced a range of programs providing financial support for individuals and small businesses impacted by COVID-19.

Doctors of BC has gathered information on all of these programs in one place for easy reference. The resource page can be found here.

Helping physicians cope in times of stress

The Physician Health Program advises it has added additional resources to provide counselling services for physicians and their family members. Counsellors are available by phone or videoconferencing for physicians and physician trainees who are feeling overwhelmed and needing support with issues.

More information on PHP programs can be found here.

Upcoming Webinars