Re: Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 63, No. 10, December 2021, Page 408 Letters
By: Lesley Horton, MD, CCFP

Recommending that patients exercise more is definitely a worthwhile venture, as Dr Anne Pousette outlined in her article, “Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19: What is the physician’s role” [BCMJ 2021:63:298]. In fact, she says, “Physicians can play a crucial role in promoting a societal return to physical activity.” But by recommending that family physicians take on this task, and giving time-consuming examples of how they might do that, I am wondering if Dr Pousette is aware of what province she practises in.

BC MSP does not allow family physicians, or any physicians, to bill MSP for such counseling or for any lifestyle or preventive counseling. This is clearly outlined in the Doctors of BC revised fees for uninsured services document (www.doctorsofbc.ca/sites/default/files/uninsured_services1apr2021_421287.pdf). Patients are to be billed under code A00054, which states: “Preventative medicine counselling all forms, e.g.: health maintenance, assessment and counselling to include physical examination, smoking withdrawal and other harmful habits, weight and/or diet control, exercise programs (planning and management), stress management techniques, social support systems, establishing normal sleep patterns and other forms of lifestyle counselling - per half hour $158.00.”

Dr Pousette’s recommendations clearly fall under the above uninsured fee code, meaning MSP cannot be billed for such a visit. That means family doctors are left with the impossible choice of either doing the work and not being paid, which is clearly untenable, or saying sorry to patients who want advice for weight loss, smoking cessation, or exercise guidelines. Please, Doctors of BC, consider requesting coverage of such services in your next round of fee negotiations. Our patients, our families, our communities deserve it.
—Lesley Horton, MD, CCFP
Vancouver

This letter was submitted in response to “Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19: What is the physician’s role?”

Read the author’s response in “Re: Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19. Author replies.”

Read BC Family Doctors’ response in “Re: Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19. BC Family Doctors replies.”

Lesley Horton, MD, CCFP. Re: Re-embracing physical activity after COVID-19. BCMJ, Vol. 63, No. 10, December, 2021, Page(s) 408 - Letters.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply