Don Graham, MD

BCMJ, Vol. 49, No. 1, January/February 2007, page(s)

Changes to BCMA/WorkSafeBC Agreement

The BCMA/WorkSafeBC Agreement, which is in effect from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2012, features several changes, including the following three noteworthy ones:

• Electronic invoicing through Teleplan for expedited surgeries—for faster payment and easier account reconciliation. Stay tuned for further information regarding the implementation of this electronic billing capability.

• Improved fee code for physicians who receive telephone inquiries from WorkSafeBC medical advisors regarding an injured patient—these discussions about workers’ clinical issues are the most efficient way to exchange information and avoid the use of more forms.

• New fee structure for physicians treating severely injured workers—to reflect the time required to manage these types of injuries.

WorkSafeBC will be working to implement the majority of Agreement changes and additions during the early part of 2007. Some changes will result in retroactive payments, which WorkSafeBC will automatically process on behalf of affected physicians during the second quarter of this year.

Workers can report injuries by phone

Since October 2006 workers on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands have been using Teleclaim, a new service from WorkSafeBC that makes it easier to report a work-related injury and file a claim. The service will be expanded throughout the Interior during the first half of 2007 and then throughout the Lower Mainland.

Teleclaim is designed to make the process of filing a claim as simple as possible. Workers with time-loss injuries simply phone a toll-free number (1 888 WORKERS or #5377 on Telus Mobility, Rogers, or Bell Mobility cell phones) rather than having to complete and submit a Form 6. A knowledgeable WorkSafeBC representative completes an injury report on their behalf, explains the claim process, helps obtain services to assist with return to work, and provides other claim-related assistance as needed.

Benefit to physicians

Once Teleclaim is implemented in your area, your patients with work-related injuries should have claim numbers by the time they visit your clinic for follow-up. You will still need to submit a Form 8 (Physician’s Report) to WorkSafeBC, but the billing process will be streamlined because patients should have their report of the claim submitted at the initial visit. In turn, this will help the WorkSafeBC adjudicator to entitle that claim and provide a claim number much sooner.

All physicians should benefit from fewer rejected invoices. Front-line physicians, such as those in emergency rooms or trauma surgeons, should find Teleclaim particularly helpful because the worker will confirm that the injury was definitely work-related and initiate the claim prior to the physician’s billing submission.

Once the new service is available in your area, please remind your injured-worker patients to report through Teleclaim if they haven’t already done so—this will also help speed up entitlement and confirm that the injury is work-related.

More information

To help inform your patients about Teleclaim, posters and other print material are available at WorkSafeBC.com.

—Don Graham, MD
WorkSafeBC Chief Medical Officer