Effective July 1, 2011, the billing for GP Group Medical Visits will change. The current practice of billing the 00100 age appropriate fee for each patient for whom an individual medical service was provided in the group medical visit setting will be replaced by a sliding scale of fee codes that are time based and that depend on the size of the group and will be billed for each participating patient. Click here for more information.

BC is the first jurisdiction in Canada to implement screening, intervention, and care planning in primary care to prevent problem drinking and treat it as a chronic disease.

As of April 1, 2011, family doctors in BC have access to new guidelines covering problem-drinking screening and assessment, intervention, and treatment resources similar to those available for other chronic diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension to treat their patients with problem drinking, including alcohol addiction.

BC continues to lead the way in primary health care programs, benefiting both patients and doctors, according to the 2009-2010 annual report of the General Practice Services Committee (GPSC).
 
GPSC, a joint committee of the Province and the BC Medical Association (BCMA), was formed in 2002 with the goal of better supporting family physicians and community-level patient care in communities around the province. Click here to read more.

The Specialist Services Committee recently approved the Physician to Physician “Urgent” Advice fee (G10001) which is to be used when another physician (GP or Specialist) requires immediate advice.  Specialists can bill this item when they provide telephone advice to the initiating physician within two hours.

The fee is expected to provide better and more timely identification of patients who require urgent assessment and at the same time enhance collaboration and consultation between health care providers.