Supportive Care

Supportive Care is the (non-surgical) care rendered in-hospital by the referring family physician, who is not actively treating the case (e.g. writing orders), to a patient under the care of another physician at the desire of the patient or family, for purposes of liaison or reassurance. Supportive Care may be claimed by family physicians only, using either Visit Code 371 or 372.

Visit for Procedure Only 

When the sole reason for a visit is the performance of a procedure listed in the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Section of the Schedule, visit codes should not be claimed. This service should be claimed by billing the appropriate procedural code and fee code 54000, unless otherwise specified.

Transfer of Care Surcharge

Fee code 160 may only be claimed by Psychiatrists who provide office-based care. It is payable for patients who are discharged from the psychiatrist’s practice to their family physician with a written treatment plan for the ongoing management of the patient’s mental health. The written treatment plan fulfills the documentation requirement for this service. A minimum of six separate follow up visits must occur before code 160 may be billed

The transfer of care code is intended to assist in the safe transition of appropriate patients, whose medical needs can be managed within primary care, from the psychiatrist to the primary care physician. The billing psychiatrist must meet the established visit requirements for this fee code and must provide a transition of care treatment plan to the family physician or designate that will provide guidance on biopsycho-social recommendations for the patient.

This plan must include the following elements:  

 psychiatric diagnosis; 

 medical diagnosis; 

 medication recommendations including: - list of medication trials including reasons for discontinuing (i.e. intolerances, allergies, etc); - current medications including recommendations for dosage adjustment and duration of treatment; - monitoring that will be required while taking specific medications; and - any cautions regarding medications. 

 relevant risk management recommendations (i.e. suicide, psychosis, driving, urine drug screening, etc); and 

 relevant information from other mental health services to include: 

 interventions utilized; 

 ongoing psycho-social needs; and 

 follow-up required with mental health services.

Well Baby Care Visit 

This is to be claimed for the periodic visits of a well baby during the first two years of life involving complete examination with necessary weight and measurements, haemoglobin and urinalysis when indicated, necessary immunization(s) (excluding cost of materials), and instructions to the parent(s) regarding health care. This visit code must be claimed unless the infant is not a “well baby.