Compensation

Medical On-Call Availability Program (MOCAP)

The provincial Medical On-Call / Availability Program (MOCAP) was established by the 2001 Working Agreement between the British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA) and the Government of British Columbia.

Data collection for MOCAP occurred February 2016 and September 2016. The data collection information is currently being reviewed by the provincial MOCAP redesign panel. Once completed, the panel will issue a report to each health authority with their recommendations.

For all MOCAP questions, please contact: physician.compensation@northernhealth.ca

The MOCAP eScheduling via ByteBloc project was undertaken to identify and implement an integrated scheduling solution for physicians that supports their need to create and manage their on call schedule and to enable effective processing of physician compensation related to Medical On-Call/Availability Program (MOCAP).

For more information on the new on call scheduling solution, ByteBloc, and MBMD see MOCAP eScheduling via ByteBloc.

Policies

• Current Medical On-Call Availability Program policy (PDF)
• Medical On-Call Availability Program call back payment requirements (PDF)
• Physician master agreement call back criteria (PDF)

Forms

• Call-back invoice and verification form (PDF)

Northern Health physician statement application

The Northern Health physician statement application provides physicians with a summary of:

• All financial payments issued by Northern Health
• Current Rural Continuing Medical Education (RCME) balance

Financial statements summaries are available by:

• Month
• Period
• Date range

RCME

• Annual funding allocation
• Remaining funds
• Expiry dates
• Previous payments

Please note: Access to the statement application requires a user to be logged into the Northern Health network. For any issues with accessing the Northern Health network, please contact IT at: servicedesk@northernhealth.ca

For questions concerning the application, please contact physician compensation at: Physician.Compensation@northernhealth.ca

Northern and Isolation Travel Assistance Outreach Program (NITAOP)

The Northern and Isolation Travel Assistance Outreach Program (NITAOP) provides travel funding for approved visiting specialists and family medicine physicians who provide medical services to rural and remote communities.

Medical services eligible for funding:

• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• ENT
• General practice
• General surgery
• Internal medicine
• Methadone program
• Neurology
• Obstetrics & gynecology
• Oncology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Pediatrics
• Plastic surgery
• Physiatry
• Psychiatry
• Radiology
• Urology

Only those physicians in approved programs within Northern Health can submit claims for NIATOP funding.

Policy

• Northern and Isolation Travel Assistance Outreach Program (NITAOP) policy

Travel expenses

Physicians must submit the travel expense form as well as any applicable receipts in order to be reimbursed for their travel.

• Application for expenses

The deadline for submission of all expense forms is June 30th for claims from the previous fiscal year.

Funding approval process

1. Northern Health program managers and medical directors create a plan for community outreach services for the upcoming fiscal year.
2. The plan is submitted to the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC) for review and approval.
3. Once approved, Northern Health notifies all approved physicians with the number of visits and services by community.

Alternative Payments Program (APP) - sessions

Sessions are funded by the Alternative Payment Plan (APP) branch of the Ministry of Health and are used to:

• Support patient's access to necessary care;
• Service environments or locations not adequately supported by fee-for-service or other payment alternatives; or;
• Support contracted physicians to manage complex or time-consuming patient care by allowing billings on actual amount of time spent with/on behalf of patients.

A session is defined as:

• 3.5 hours of physician services;
• An accumulation of time intervals adding up to 3.5 hours

Please note: Smaller amounts of time not adding to a full session will be recognized but payment will not be made until the smaller amounts have accumulated to at least a quarter of an hour.

For more information, please see the Ministry of Health's APP policy framework.

New reporting requirements for 2017/2018

• Memo to physicians on sessional contacts: Ministry of Health changes to sessional reporting in 2016.

The new and upcoming Ministry requirements of encounter reporting for sessions to MSP Teleplan will include:

• The sessional group
• Date session occurred
• Sessional start time and end time
• Either:
  • Patient Personal Health Number (PHN)
  • Physician comments
  • Comment field from a drop down that includes fee items
• The above current reporting requirements
• Billed fee item
• Patient PHN
• Patient first and last name
• Diagnostic code

The new sessional application, eSessions, was launched August 15, 2016.

To ease transition, sessional physicians will not be required to enter the new encounter information right now, but will enter the same information as the current system (the first four bullet points above). Over the course of the 2017-18 fiscal year, a phased approach will commence with all sessional groups encounter reporting by March 31, 2018. A physician user manual is currently being developed and will be available shortly.