Billing changes – COVID-19

 

Billing changes will allow:

The full list of telehealth fees by section can be found here. 

 

Effective immediately, WorkSafeBC and ICBC permits Telehealth (video and telephone) for anything that does not require a physical exam/assessment. All ICBC Driver’s Medical Examinations are paused.

If physicians encounter problems, they should contact the regular ICBC/WorkSafeBC contact (ICBC Health Care Inquiry Unit at 1-888-717-7150 and WorkSafe BC Health Care Services at HCSINQU@worksafebc.com). These changes are in effect until an end date can safely be determined.

• General Preamble changes
• Section of General Practice Preamble changes

 

New COVID-19 Office Visit Codes

UPDATED MARCH 20, 2020

• Two new, temporary office visit fees have been introduced for physicians treating patients  with suspected or active COVID-19 symptoms, one with test and one without test. The fees are payable only for in-office visits with patients displaying suspected or active COVID-19 symptoms.  
• They are not payable in addition to another face-to-face visit for the same patient on the same day. However, they can be billed in addition to a telephone or video visit on the same day.

 

Updates for Family Physicians

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

• Respiratory immunization for patients 19 years of age or older, bill fee item T10040
  Notes:
  i) Payable for Influenza (using ICD-9 code V048) and Pneumococcal (using ICD-
  9 code V05) immunizations.
  ii) Payable in full with an office visit.
  iii) If the primary purpose of the visit is for immunization, bill fee item 00010
  using ICD-9 code V048 for influenza and/or V05 for pneumococcal.
• The Daily volume limit for in-office care for office visits, counselling, and complete examinations will be reinstated effective October 1, 2020, as per the Provincial Health Officer.
• Services directly related to COVID-19 should include diagnostic code C19.
• New fees for family physicians, effective March 27 can be found here and include:
  • T10040 -- Respiratory immunization for patients 19 years of age or older
  • 13706 -- New Family Practice Delegated Patient Telehealth Management Fee (effective March 30)
  • 13707 -- New Family Practice Email/Text/Telephone Medical Advice Relay or ReRX Fee (effective March 30)
  • 13708 -- New Family Practice COVID-19 communication with specialist and/or allied care provider (effective March 30)
• Updates and changes to GPSC fees effective March 20 and March 23 can be found here:
  • Telehealth allowed for components of GPSC Planning and Mental Health Management Fees (effective March 23)
  • Long Term Care Facility Visit (effective March 20)
  • Palliative Care Patient Facility Visit Fee (effective March 20)
• For helpful Q&A, please visit the BC Family Doctors website.

Temporary changes to the Chronic Disease Management fees (14050-53, 14250-53) and 14066 can be found here and include:

• 14050-53 and 14250-53 allow the minimum two visits to be delivered via telehealth, with the agreement to revisit the change in December 2020. 14066 can now be billed when the visit is provided via telehealth.

 

New age-adjusted telehealth fees for family doctors

New age-adjusted telehealth fee codes for family doctor visits, counselling, and consultations done by phone or video will come into effect June 1, 2020 – the codes are based on the date the service was rendered, not claim submission date.  For all services rendered on May 31 and prior, use the old codes – for all services rendered June 1 and beyond, use the new codes. Incorrect codes will trigger a rejection.

These new fees have the same value as the in-person fee codes for similar patient encounters.

• These fee codes are to be used regardless of the physician’s location (home,  office, or Health Authority approved facility).
• Business Cost Premium (BCP) will apply to the new fee codes. 
• This applies to the equivalent of visits (0100 series equivalents), counselling​(0120 series equivalents), and consultations (0110 series equivalents). 

The GPSC and BC Family Doctors co-hosted a webinar explaining these changes on May 28. For more information or to view a recording, visit the GPSC website.

More information and a downloadable billing cheat sheet can be found on the BC Family Doctors website. 

 

Updates for Specialist Physicians

• See “Payment for Video and Telephone Visits” (above) for information on billing with existing telehealth codes or for billing face-to-face codes via telehealth​
• See “New COVID-19 Office Visit Codes” (above) which can be billed
• As of April 15, the Specialist Services Committee (SSC) has introduced four new codes:
  • 10000 Urgent Specialist Advice on patient with previous visit/service (effective April 15, 2020)
  • 10007 Specialist Email/Text/Telephone Medical Advice Relay or reRX Fee (effective March 27, 2020)
  • 10008 Urgent Specialist COVID-19 Advice (effective March 27, 2020)
  • 10009 Non-Urgent Specialist Advice on patient with previous visit/service (effective April 15, 2020)
  • Details on new fees can be found here (updated April 15, 2020).
  • FAQ available here (updated May 11, 2020).

SSC Fee & Billing Changes Webinar

A webinar was hosted by the Specialist Services Committee (SSC), the Specialists of BC and the Ministry of Health for the heads/presidents of the specialist sections in BC about the fee and billing changes to support BC specialists during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Dr Sam Bugis, Doctors of BC VP of Physician Affairs and Specialty Practice, Dr Matthew Chow, SSC Co-chair (Doctors of BC), and Ryan Murray, SSC Co-chair (Ministry) provided information on the response to the pandemic through the new fee codes offered by the committee and the Medical Services Plan. They also responded to other questions regarding physician compensation during COVID-19. Click here to see the webinar. 

 

Billing Changes FAQs

• Frequently asked questions and further information available here.