Author profile
Lorne Verhulst, MD
From time to time you will see requests for medical inspectors or audit hearing panel members. You may wonder why anyone would want to be a medical inspector and audit their peers. When the Audit and Inspection... Read More
In 2014 the Patterns of Practice Committee published the following information about physicians billing for family members or themselves. Despite this, there continue to be incidents of physicians treating and billing... Read More
In March 2017, the Patterns of Practice Committee (POPC) embarked on a new journey by providing educational opportunities to physicians relating to audit and billing. Communications were sent to all sections heads and... Read More
The Medical Services Commission (MSC), not the Patterns of Practice Committee, has regulatory authority over the MSC Payment Schedule. If changes to the Payment Schedule are sought (e.g., a new form fee), they must go... Read More
Doctors of BC has recently been made aware that some physicians are confusing the use of payment numbers and payment forms. Practitioners should understand how the numbers differ and how to use them correctly with the... Read More
One of the objectives of on-site audits is to determine whether physicians’ patterns of practice for individual patients are justified. In other words, is the number of services provided to a patient reasonable given... Read More
The Billing Integrity Program (BIP) uses two main methods to monitor payments for services rendered by practitioners who bill MSP on a fee-for-service basis: service verification audits (SVAs) and practitioner profile... Read More
In audits, as well as at the Reference Committee, we often see physicians using inappropriate fee codes when there isn’t a fee item that fits the work they are doing. This may occur in relation to infrequently performed... Read More
If you receive fee-for-service (FFS) payments from the Medical Services Plan (MSP), a mini-profile will be generated, which is a statistical analysis of your billings for that calendar year. The mini-profiles are... Read More
The use of electronic medical records (EMRs) for keeping patient records has become the norm rather than the exception in BC. EMRs are not only a fundamental component in keeping patient records, but also how physicians... Read More