ClinicAid British Columbia - Getting Started Guide
Setting up your provider record
Connecting your account to the Teleplan system
1) Doing a demographic import of patient records from a previous system
2) Adding a patient record from the Manage Patients section
3) Creating a patient record from the Create Invoice page
1) Completing the patient information section
2) Completing the provider information section
3) Adding line items with appropriate service codes, fee modifiers, and diagnostic codes
4) Adding any additional information to the claim
5) Saving and submitting your claims
Contacts and additional resources
Welcome to ClinicAid
Thanks for signing up for ClinicAid! We hope our web-based medical billing software will enable you to bill the BC Medical Services Plan (MSP) quickly and easily!
Now that you’ve signed up, you should have already received your login details via email to access your brand new ClinicAid account. In order to start setting up your account for billing, you’ll need to log in. Go to the clinicaid.ca homepage and click on the Login button in the top right-hand corner. Enter your email and password on the login page and hit the Get Started button to access your account.
We recommend using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome for any of your ClinicAid activities as these are the browsers that will ensure the best ClinicAid experience. We don’t advise using Safari or Internet Explorer for your ClinicAid billing purposes.
Once you’ve logged in with your email and password, you will reach your Dashboard which should show three empty sections (Invoices Requiring Action, Billing Opportunities, and Unsubmitted Invoices) when you first start out. You’ll need to set up your account in order to begin creating and submitting your bills properly through the MSP Teleplan Claims Submission and Processing system. This is a step-by-step written guide to how to do just that! Please feel free to view our video tutorial that also goes over these instructions.
Setting up your provider record
The first thing you’ll need to do in order to complete your account setup is to create a provider record. If you’ve already been in touch with one of our support reps, this step may already be partially or fully completed for you.
In case you haven’t had your provider record(s) set up yet, here is what you’ll need to do.
Step 1: From the left-hand side menu, click on the Admin section.
Step 2: Click on Providers.
Step 3: Click on the green “Add Provider” button.
Step 4: Complete the provider information, including:
- First and Last Name: the physician’s name.
- Provider Billing Number: the physician’s 5 digit practitioner number, as registered with MSP.
- Payee Number: usually the same as the provider’s billing number. In some cases, clinics will have their own payee number, also known as a group number, and will receive payment from MSP directly. The clinic is then responsible for paying out each physician individually. If this is the case for you, the clinic’s payee number (group number) should go in this field.
- Rural Retention Code*: for physicians that work in rural areas, a rural retention code is required. The correct location can be selected via the dropdown menu and will automatically apply the correct code to claims. If left blank, the field will show “Not Applicable” on your claims by default.
- Service Location*: identifies where the service was performed. The appropriate location can be selected from the dropdown menu.
*Please note: A physician may work at multiple locations. The information saved in the provider record will be the default information that will appear on all the claims created using that particular provider, unless modified for each individual claim. It is also possible to leave this information blank and to complete it per bill using the Advanced tab when creating an invoice or with the use of default invoices (invoice templates).
Step 5: Click the blue “Create provider” button in order to save the record.
Once you’ve completed all of the fields and saved the record, you should see a new provider displayed in the account. You can view the record by clicking the name of the provider or the little grey eye button on the right. You can make edits to the record by clicking the name of the provider and selecting edit, or by clicking the blue pencil icon on the right. Providers can be set to “inactive” if needed.
A completed provider record should look something like this:
You’ll need to set up separate provider records for each of the physicians the billing will be done for using this ClinicAid account.
Connecting your account to the Teleplan system
ClinicAid is built to connect directly to the BC Ministry of Health’s Teleplan electronic file transmission system. In order to connect your ClinicAid account to teleplan you will need to have your payee number (usually your MSP number) connected to a Teleplan data centre number.
We recommend getting your own data centre number if you are not already attached to one. This will provide you with added flexibility when it comes to accessing the data you send to Teleplan through ClinicAid, without having to first go through our support reps for assistance.
If you do not have a data centre number, you can apply for one by completing the opted-in (HLTH 2820) or opted-out (HLTH 2771) Application for Teleplan Service form. For further assistance regarding data centre numbers, how they work, and how to complete these forms, please feel free to contact Teleplan or contact one of our support reps.
Once you have a data centre number that your payee number is attached to, you can input your credentials in the Admin section of ClinicAid by filling out the Manage Teleplan tab. You will need your:
Data centre #: the data centre number that your payee number is attached to, as registered with Teleplan. Please note that if you input a data centre number that your payee number is not attached to, your claims will be rejected.
Username: the username that you have been given by Teleplan once you call them to activate your account.
Password*: the password that you have set in your Teleplan account after activation. You will receive a temporary password from Teleplan when you initially call to activate your account. You’ll then need to log in via the Teleplan website and change your temporary password before entering it into ClinicAid.
*Please note: Teleplan requires you to change your password every 42 days for security purposes. You will need to update your password in ClinicAid every time you make changes to it in order to match Teleplan’s data.
Once you have saved your information into the Manage Teleplan section, you will see a “pending validation” message. Our system runs a validation approximately every 10 minutes to make sure that it can connect to the Teleplan system with the details you’ve entered. When the validation has run, you should see an updated message in either green or red letting you know that the information you entered is either valid or invalid. If your information is valid, you are ready to start submitting claims through ClinicAid!
Adding your first patients
In order to create and submit claims, you will need to link them to a patient’s personal health number (PHN). This means that you will need to create patient demographic records in ClinicAid with your patients’ details before beginning to submit claims.
There are three ways to add new patients into your ClinicAid account, outlined below.
1) Doing a demographic import of patient records from a previous system
If you were billing through a different software previous to getting a ClinicAid account, it may be possible to import your patient data directly into ClinicAid so that you don’t have to manually enter each patient record into the system. We will need a copy of your data in a comma-separated value (CSV) format (generally an Excel spreadsheet-type format will work).
If you don’t have direct access to your patient data, you will need to ask your current or previous billing software provider for the export or, if the data is on a server within your office, we may be able to access it remotely.
Contact a ClinicAid support rep if you’d like to find out more about doing an import of your data.
2) Adding a patient record from the Manage Patients section
You can add individual patient records by navigating to the Manage Patients section in the left-hand side menu. This will probably be the most efficient way to add a batch of patients when you first begin using your new ClinicAid account.
Step 1: In the Manage Patients section, you will see two options for creating a new patient record:
Option 1: Click the green “Add Patient” button to open up the complete patient demographic form which will allow you to fill out all of the patient’s details.
Option 2: Click the green “Quick Patient” button to open up a shortened version of the complete patient demographic form. You can set which fields to display by default on this form in the Preferences > Settings > Patient Quick Forms section.
Step 2: Select whichever of the two options is best suited to your practice and begin entering the patient’s details. BC’s Medical Services Plan requires all claims to contain the following basic patient information in order for them to be processed properly:
- First and last name: enter the patient’s name, as registered with MSP.
- Health Number: 10 digit personal health number of the patient, as seen on their healthcare card.
Nothing else is required by MSP, unless the claim is for a newborn patient or different insurer type. If this is the case, the additional information below is also necessary:
- Gender: the gender of the patient is required for any insurer type other than MSP (ICBC, WCB, out-of-province*, etc.).
- Birthdate: the patient’s date of birth is required for newborn patients, but is optional otherwise. ClinicAid will show an acknowledgement message if the birthdate of the patient isn’t entered as some fee amounts and accounting reports will be incorrect if a patient doesn’t have an age associated with them.
*Please note: For an out-of-province patient additional information, such as the patient’s address, must also be included with the claim. The healthcare type must be set to the issuing province or territory that the patient is covered under. This will prompt ClinicAid to automatically format the bill as an out-of-province claim and will include the additional information necessary, as based on the patient’s demographic record.
Step 3: Click the blue “Create patient” button to save the record once you have added the desired amount of information.
You can continue adding patient records by repeating this process.
3) Creating a patient record from the Create Invoice page
You can also create patient records directly from the Create Invoice screen. This method will be particularly useful once you already have your patient files set up and are adding new patients as you are doing the billing for them. It is also especially useful for physicians that don’t have regular patients.
When you click on the Create Invoice section in the left-hand menu, your cursor will automatically be in the Patient field. This field is a search that you can type patient names or PHNs into in order to pull up their patient record easily when creating an invoice. However, if the patient doesn’t already exist in your system, you will need to add them following these steps:
Step 1: Click on the + icon next to the patient field in order to open up the “Add a new patient” quick form.
Step 2: Complete all of the desired patient information.
Step 3: Click the blue “Create patient” button in order to save the record. This patient’s record will now join your other records in the Manage Patients section and will be searchable for future billing.
MSP Eligibility Check
We have built an automatic eligibility check in order to see if patients are covered by MSP. You will find this check in the form of a colour-coded person icon in a few places in ClinicAid.
It will appear next to the patient’s health number when viewing or editing their patient record in the Manage Patients section:
It will also appear next to the Patient Information section on the Create Invoice page:
The check will run every time a patient is selected for billing and the person icon will change colour to match the appropriate eligibility status. The colour codes are as follows:
Green means the patient is eligible for MSP coverage.
Red means the patient is ineligible for MSP coverage.
White means the eligibility check was not performed (which may signal that your Teleplan information is no longer valid).
If you use your mouse cursor to hover over the person icon, additional information about the check will be displayed.
Once you’ve added patient records to your ClinicAid account, you’re ready to start creating invoices!
Creating your first invoices
There are 5 main sections to complete in order to create and submit your MSP claims through Teleplan properly. They are as follows:
1) Completing the patient information section
Step 1: Select the patient you wish to bill for. This field acts as a search so if the patient already exists in your account, simply search for them by name or PHN. If the patient does not yet exist, add the patient record following the instructions above.
Step 2: Once the patient is selected, their information should prefill in the Patient Information section of the invoice.
Step 3: Add a Referral ID if the patient was referred to you by another physician. This field acts as a search so you can begin typing the referral physician’s name or practitioner ID. If they don’t appear in the search results, you can simply type in the practitioner ID if you know it, or you can add the provider as a custom referral provider by going to the Admin section in the left-hand side menu, opening the Referral Providers tab, and adding a new referral provider.
2) Completing the provider information section
If you’ve set a default provider* in your account (especially useful for sole practitioners), the Provider Information section should already be prefilled. Otherwise, simply begin typing the name of a physician or select them from the list that appears.
*To set a default provider, click the Edit pencil icon next to the Default Provider setting (found at the top right of the screen next to your account information) and select the provider’s name you wish to set as the default provider in the account.
To save, click the checkmark. Once this is saved, your new invoices will have the provider information section prefilled with this provider’s details.
3) Adding line items with appropriate service codes, fee modifiers, and diagnostic codes
All claims submitted to Teleplan will require a service code. Fee amounts may be modified using either the unit multiplier or, where applicable (especially in the case of surgical assists), can be overridden using the Fee field. Claims submitted to MSP also require a diagnostic code.
The service codes and diagnostic codes fields are searchable by code or by official description so typing numbers or letters in these fields will automatically display search results. Codes can be selected from the search results or typed in.
In order to complete a line item, follow these steps:
Step 1: input the appropriate service code. Service codes generally consist of 5 digits. You can search for a code by number or description. For longer descriptions, use your mouse to hover over the short descriptions displayed in order to see the full text.
Step 2: complete the unit multiplier field or edit the fee amount, if applicable.
Step 3: input the appropriate diagnostic code. You can search for the code by the number or the word. If multiple codes are required (for complex care patients, for example), additional codes can be added in the Claim Note field in the Advanced tab of the invoice.
Step 4: select the service date. By default, the service date is set to today’s date. In order to select a service date in the past, use the calendar feature.
Step 5: click the black “Add” button to add the line item to the invoice.
You can add as many line items as you’d like for a particular patient. They will be assessed based on the service code and service date.
4) Adding any additional information to the claim
Any other information that may be required in a claim, such as a claim note, different insurer type, and more can be set in the Advanced tab on the invoice creation page. This is where specific claim information, such as rural retention code or service location, can also be changed. This is especially important if the claim requires information that is different than what is saved in the default provider record.
ICBC and WCB claims can also be processed through the Teleplan submissions system. In order to access the WCB tab, the Insurer Type in the Advanced tab will need to be changed to WCB.
Selecting ICBC as the insurer type will add an ICBC Claim Number field to the Advanced tab.
Other insurer type options include a Pay Patient option and an Out of Province option which, if selected, will provide access to the Patient tab.
The Out of Province option should be automatically selected for any patient that has their healthcare type set to anything other than BC in their patient demographic record. The Patient tab should also automatically prefill with the address and any additional information based on the out of province patient’s record in ClinicAid.
5) Saving and submitting your claims
Once you’ve completed all of the necessary information on your claim, you are ready to send it in! You can submit the claim immediately by clicking the green “Send Now” button at the bottom of the invoice, but we recommend saving the claim by clicking the blue “Save” button instead. Saving your claims will allow you to do one final review before sending them off in a larger batch.
To send off your batch of saved claims, go to the Manage Invoices section. The “New” status (first tab) will display your new, unsubmitted claims which you can then send in a batch by checking the top checkbox (next to Service Date). This will select all of the claims visible on the page and once you click the green “Send” button that appears after checking the items, they will be sent to MSP’s Teleplan electronic submission system.
In order to send more claims than just the 10 visible by default, you can change the amount of items per page using the dropdown at the top of the screen.
You can also send just a few claims in by selecting them using the checkboxes, or you can send claims in individually by clicking the green arrow button at the end of each claim line.
Once claims have been sent, they will move into the Pending tab until they are assessed by Teleplan and sent back with updated statuses. You will not be able to edit claims that are pending until you receive a response from MSP on them.
Claims that have evident errors, such as invalid codes or personal health numbers, will be rejected and sent back by Teleplan shortly after submission (generally within 24-72 hours). These claims will then appear on your Dashboard under “Invoices Requiring Action” and will also be displayed in the “Requires Action” tab in the Manage Invoices section. You can go back to edit these claims and resend them before cut-off in order to be assessed before the next remittance date.
BC MSP Billing Cycle
The billing cycle in British Columbia* runs twice monthly and follows this general pattern:
- cut-off date: varies every month, but is generally during the first and third week. The official cut-off time is 7:00 p.m. PST. Claims received before cut-off will be assessed and included in the next remittance file posted.
- remittance posted: generally within 7-10 days after cut-off, the remittance file is posted. The file is accessible as of 5:00 a.m. PST on the remittance date. ClinicAid will automatically get the file as soon as it’s available and will update the status of pending claims accordingly.
- payment date: claims sent in before cut-off will be assessed and paid out within a few days after the remittance file has been posted (usually around the 15th and 30th of the month).
*Cut-off, remittance, and payment dates vary each month. An updated schedule can be found on the ClinicAid blog.
ClinicAid will automatically update your claim statuses to show whether claims have been settled (accepted and paid in full) or require action (rejected or underpaid). Held claims will be held for further assessment and will be updated once they have been assessed and sent back with a future remittance file. You can view the various statuses in the Manage Invoices section. Rejected or underpaid claims will also be displayed on the Dashboard in your Invoices Requiring Action section.
Invoices requiring action will have this status until you edit them to “fix” the issue displayed by the rejection reason and code, or until you manually settle the claims to acknowledge and accept rejected or underpaid claims based on their rejection reason and code.
You can submit claims as often as you’d like and you can use ClinicAid’s handy features, such as favourites lists and default invoice templates (set up in the Preferences section of the left-hand menu), to streamline your submission process.
For help with setup or questions about how ClinicAid’s medical billing software works, you can contact us and one of our support representatives will help you as soon as possible. We also have a video tutorial which you can follow along with in order to set up your account.
Contacts and additional resources
Please visit ClinicAid’s Customer Support Portal to find additional resources to help you familiarize yourself with your new account. There, you’ll find links to our tutorial videos, as well as FAQs and written guides to help you become a ClinicAid billing pro in no time! You can also visit our blog for updates and more relevant information about ClinicAid. Feel free to contact us with any other questions you may have.
For questions regarding your Teleplan data centre, username, or password, or specific questions about your remittance statement, rejections, payments, and more, it is best to contact the Teleplan Support Centre at 1-866-456-6950 (follow the voice message prompts to press 3, then 2 for the provider support line).
They will generally ask for the patient’s name and health number in order to look up the claim in their system. You will also need your data centre number and/or the sequence number of the assessed claim. You may also be asked for the date of service, the practitioner’s billing number, and payee number (if different). All of this data (except for your data centre number) will appear when viewing your claims in ClinicAid.
Other useful resources include the general MSP Health Care Practitioners page (for important dates, notices, and more from the BC Ministry of Health), the Medical Services Commission’s (MSC) Payment Schedule (for official fee amounts payable to physicians for MSP claims), the Diagnostic Code (ICD) Descriptions used in ClinicAid (for official wording of Dx code descriptions), the MSP Tutor modules (for learning or reviewing how to bill), and the MSP Forms section (for copies of the relevant forms required for practitioners in British Columbia).
We hope this guide has helped you familiarize yourself with your ClinicAid account. Please let us know if you have any questions and happy billing!