June 12, 2024

Update on LFP billing for facility-based care

Doctors of BC and BC Family Doctors continue to work with the Ministry of Health to refine and improve the Longitudinal Family Physician (LFP) Payment Model. We continue to listen to your feedback and adjust the payment model to address your concerns. To submit questions or feedback, please email FP.Billing@doctorsofbc.ca.

In this newsletter, we are providing information on the following:

• Progress towards the start of LFP billing for facility-based care
• Summary of LFP Payment Schedule changes for clinic-based care
• LFP facility-based care billing webinar recordings
• FPSC supports for inpatient care

Progress towards the start of LFP billing for facility-based care

With less than two weeks left before facility-based billing begins under the LFP Payment Model, we wanted to provide you with an update on the timeline. 

We are happy to report that implementation is progressing on schedule. 

• The new LFP Payment Schedule (effective June 24, 2024) has been approved and shared. 

• BC Family Doctors’ Simplified LFP Guide has been updated with the new LFP billing codes. 

• LFP billing webinars were hosted to introduce the new codes. (Recordings available below.)

• Billing codes are being built into MSP/Teleplan.

We expect that you will be able to begin billing for facility-based care as planned on June 24. 

Prior to June 24, LFP billing codes will be integrated into various EMRs and billing systems. We are hopeful that the majority will have billing codes ready for your use. Some EMRs and billing systems may need additional time to incorporate the new codes. As a result, some physicians may need to wait to submit their billing claims. Physicians should follow their regular process for updating the fee codes in their EMR and work with their vendor as needed.

Implementing a change of this magnitude is a massive undertaking. This sets a record in BC for the number of codes added to MSP/Teleplan at a single time. As a result, we expect that there might be some bumps along the road as these changes are rolled out in the MSP/Teleplan system. 

We are working closely with the Ministry of Health to understand and address any issues that may arise. We will keep you updated as the work progresses.

Summary of changes for clinic-based care

In addition to new facility-based care billing codes, the June 24 LFP Payment Schedule also has numerous changes for clinic-based care. The key changes and clarifications are: 

• Requiring physicians to submit a setting registration code for clinic-based care on or soon after June 24, 2024
   
• How to submit time codes
  • Using the same patient when submitting time codes for the day
  • Using the first patient for whom you billed an interaction code when submitting time codes each day 
• Clarifying the use of start and end times when billing fee-for-service codes on the same day as LFP codes (e.g. WorkSafeBC, ICBC, out-of-province patients)
   
• Using fee-for-service codes for BC government forms other than Ministry of Health forms (e.g. RoadSafetyBC forms, Persons with Disabilities designation applications)

Detailed information about these changes can be found on the BC Family Doctors website (member-login required). 

To incorporate facility-based care, most of the payment schedule has changed. We recommend that physicians review the payment schedule in full, even if you do not provide facility-based care. The current payment schedule (dated March 2024) remains in effect until June 24. 

LFP billing webinar recordings now available 

We recently held billing webinars about LFP facility-based care with one webinar for each area of facility-based care billing. If you weren’t able to attend or would like to review the information, the recordings are now available: 

• How to get started: LFP billing for long-term and palliative care. Watch here.
• How to get started: LFP billing for inpatient care. Watch here.
• How to get started: LFP billing for pregnancy & newborn care in hospital. Watch here.

These webinars review:

• Eligibility and registration 
• Time codes 
• Interaction codes

These webinars do not provide information about on-call/availability or FPSC support for these areas of care. That information will be provided separately.

The next stage in FPSC's support for inpatient care

Based on concerns from physicians in some communities about the sustainability of inpatient care services with the evolution of FPSC supports, and the end of bridge and stabilization funding at the end of September, last week the Family Practice Services Committee (FPSC) announced:

• The Assigned Inpatient Care Network Payment (14086) will be payable to physicians who enrol in the LFP Payment Model for inpatient care as well as those physicians compensated by fee-for-service/AP models. The payment has been extended to December 31, 2024. The last quarterly date of billing is October 1, 2024 – the payment extension covers networking activities from October 1 to December 31, 2024.
   

• Additional transitional support for divisions. FPSC has agreed to provide one-time transitional funding and supports to high-risk communities on a case-by-case basis for the period of October 1 to December 31, 2024. FPSC will work with individual communities to help mitigate the risk of significant service reductions after FPSC bridge and stabilization funding ends on September 30, 2024.

Learn more from the recent FPSC announcement.

Need more information?

Write us

Email: FP.Billing@doctorsofbc.ca

View our information online (member login required)

• Doctors of BC: doctorsofbc.ca/new-payment-model
• BC Family Doctors: bcfamilydocs.ca/lfp-payment-model
• BC Government website: gov.bc.ca/MSP/LFP (login not required)