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As agreed to in the 2019 Physician Master Agreement, effective April 1, 2020 eligible physicians have been able to receive a percentage premium on MSP fees for in-person Consultation, Visit, Counselling, and Complete Examination services to help cover the rising rent, lease, or ownership costs of a community-based office.
In May 2020 the BCP was temporarily expanded to also include Telehealth (phone and video) fee items for Consultation, Visit, Counselling, and Complete Examination services. This was to ensure that eligible physicians can still take advantage of the premium during the Covid-19 pandemic, given these services would have normally been provided in-person in physician’s offices.
Physicians meeting the following criteria are eligible for the BCP:
The percentage values and the daily maximum amounts of the BCP are based on the eligible fees and the location of the community-based office in which the services are provided:
The BCP will be applied to eligible fees submitted on physician’s MSP-billing claims, and will be paid to the physician’s payee number (or assigned payee number, if applicable). The claims system will apply the percentage for the premium and calculate the daily maximum. In order to identify the physical location in which services are provided and for the correct percentage premium to be applied, physicians will need to include their assigned BCP Facility Number on their billing claims.
List of eligible fees by section.
Registering for the BCP involves two steps: 1) Obtain a BCP Facility Number, and 2) complete a Physician Attachment form.
Step 1
Register your community-based office for a BCP Facility Number, which will identify the physical location in which services are provided and allow for the correct percentage premium to be applied.
The physician responsible for administration of the office (the “Facility Administrator”) can apply for a BCP Facility Number by submitting the online application linked below. Only one BCP Facility Number is required per office, regardless if it is a solo or group practice.
Obtain BCP Facility Number forms:
Online Application
Fill and print form
Notes:
Step 2
Once your location has been assigned a BCP Facility Number you can complete the online Physician Attachment form linked below to attach yourself to your office and its Facility Number.
Practitioner Attachment forms:
Online application
Fill and print form
Notes:
If there are any changes to the information after the BCP Facility Number application form has been submitted, the Facility Administrator must submit the “Application to Cancel or Change Details for Facilities with an MSP Facility Number” form linked below.
Online application
Fill and print form
Yes, fee codes T13701 (Office Visit for COVID-19 with test) and T13702 (Office Visit for COVID-19 without test) are both eligible for the BCP, as Visits are considered an eligible service under the BCP criteria.
No, eligible locations include the city of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, the greater Victoria area, and other communities not eligible for the RRP. There are other mechanisms in-place for funding in rural locations.
Examples of ownership costs include mortgage, utilities, property taxes, etc.
Yes, if the walk-in clinic is located in an eligible geographical location, and you are an eligible physician paying towards the lease, rent or ownership costs of the clinic.
Only the physicians who pay towards the rent, lease, or ownership costs of an eligible office would qualify for the BCP.
Yes, if it is an eligible clinic and you pay towards the lease, rent, or ownership costs.
Yes, if you work in a clinic that qualifies and part of your agreement is to cover some of the lease, rent, or ownership costs. The payment will be paid to the Payee number you have assigned on the Assignment of Payment form. The payment should be distributed between the host physician/clinic and locum as per your agreement.
The BCP may be paid on multiple facility numbers. The BCP daily maximum though is based on an individual practitioner. The BCP will paid to a practitioner maximum on whichever eligible claims are received first, regardless of facility or payee number. If the maximum is reached on the first clinics claims, then no BCP is paid to the second clinic. However, if the maximum is not reached for the first clinic, the remaining amount will be paid to the second clinic.
No, precise dates are not needed for locums, they can put in the same dates as their AOP. If circumstances change and the physician cancels their AOP, they should update their registration on the APPLICATION TO CANCEL OR CHANGE DETAILS FOR FACILITIES WITH AN MSP FACILITY NUMBER form.
Not at this time. These are two separate forms. Practitioner attachment for the BCP can be completed online using a new electronic form, while the existing Assignment of Payment form must be submitted by Canada Post or fax.
Yes. If your registration isn’t complete until after April 1, you have two options to claim the BCP:
This most likely means you have entered your Payee number in the MSP Practitioner Number field instead of your personal MSP Practitioner number.
This is the date the clinic/office originally opened at its current location. If you don’t know this date, please use April 1, 2020.
You can call the HIBC Practitioner number for technical assistance with a form:
Vancouver: (604) 456-6950
Elsewhere in B.C.: 1-866-456-6950
If you practice at more than one eligible office (e.g. two offices) and pay towards the lease, rent, or ownership costs at both places, then you would be eligible for the BCP whenever you provide eligible services at either location. You must complete the Practitioner attachment for each unique eligible office.
To change physician attachment details, the Facility Administrator must submit the “Application to Cancel or Change Details for Facilities with an MSP Facility Number” form to HIBC: https://my.gov.bc.ca/bcp/update-facility/home
It will show up as a Level 1 adjustment on your remittance statement.
The BCP is an MSP payment and the sharing between physicians and clinic owners should be based on your current agreement regarding overhead costs, unless you agree to an alternative arrangement. The PMA clearly states that the BCP is for physicians, and therefore clinic owners cannot automatically retain all of the BCP.
No, the daily maximum is per physician per day across all locations or facilities.
Billing claims should be resubmitted with the exact same details, but this time add the BCP Facility Number that was assigned to your office. The claims system will automatically debit off the original claim and process your resubmitted claim, and apply the BCP to applicable fees. For claims greater than 90 days, submission code A is required. The form can be found here.
Doctors registered on August 1, 2021 or after are eligible to resubmit billing claims back to April 1, 2021.
The Doctors Technology Office is consulting with the EMR vendor-community to gauge readiness for implementation. However, as there are 100+ Teleplan certified billing vendors, it is recommended that physicians follow up with their billing software company/EMR vendor for information regarding their specific software as soon as possible.
No. Existing fields do not identify the physical location of the community-based office. After registration an office will be assigned a unique Facility Number. The new Facility Number is the best field for administering the BCP given the technical parameters of the Teleplan system. It is a “mandatory field” which means that every software provider is already required to have that field built into their product, although you may not see it right now.
The claims system will be programmed to only apply the BCP to the eligible fee items submitted by eligible physicians. If you submit a non-BCP fee item, the system will process your claims in the usual manner and will not apply the premium.
The claim will be refused with an explanation that the practitioner has not been attached to the facility number.
Business Cost Premium Education Webinar March 12, 2020 recording
Details covered in the session included eligibility criteria, how to register for a facility number, and EMR requirements for submitting BCP claims.