Adding and modifying service fee codes

Wolf EMR comes with a compete set of provincial fee codes; however, to bill patients for un-insured services, such as motor vehicle medical examinations, you must create custom fee codes for your clinic. You must also create custom fee codes for services you bill to third parties such as insurance and law companies. You can create as many custom service fee codes as you need.

If necessary, you can also modify provincial service fee codes.

Important: Any modifications you make to provincial service fee codes are overwritten when you update the provincial fee codes.

If you want to permanently remove a fee code from your EMR, you can delete the fee code. You cannot delete a fee code if the code has been applied to a bill. If the fee code has been applied to a bill, you can only deactivate the fee code. See Deactivating or deleting fee codes. Once you delete a fee code, you cannot reactivate it.

Steps

From the Wolf EMR home page, click Configuration

From the Configuration menu, click View > Insurers, Payors (Gov’t, Private) and Codes > Fee Codes. The Fee Code Maintenance window opens.

Perform one of the following actions:

To add a fee code, in the Search tab, in the Fee Schedule list, select the fee schedule (fee list) to which you want to add the fee code and click .

Tip: To add a fee code to your clinic’s custom fee code list, select This Clinic. To add a provincial fee code, click Medical Services Plan (BC).
If This Clinic is not available in the fee schedule list, create a fee schedule called This Clinic. See Creating fee schedules (fee lists).

To edit a fee code, search for and select the fee code you want to edit:

In the Search tab, in the Fee Schedule list, select the fee schedule (fee list) the fee code is listed under.

Tip: To find one of your clinic’s custom fee codes, click This Clinic. To find a provincial fee code, click Medical Services Plan (BC).

If you know the fee code, in the Fee Code field, enter part or all of the fee code. If you don’t know the fee code, in the Description field, enter a description for the fee code.
To view a complete list of fee codes for the selected fee schedule, leave the Fee Code and Description fields blank.

Click Search. The EMR displays the Search Results tab with a list of matching fee codes.

In the list of fee codes, double-click the code.

The EMR displays the Data tab for the selected or new fee code.

On the Data tab, enter or edit information using the following table as a reference. You can ignore fields that are not described in the table.

Field	Description
Fee Code	Enter a code to represent a service. You can use numbers, letters, or a combination of the two. You are restricted to 10 characters. The code must contain at least one number. On an invoice, the Fee code is printed beside the description, so you do not have to be very descriptive with the code. A simple number looks best. View on invoice:
Inactive Date	If you want the code to become inactive on a certain date, enter the date here; otherwise, leave this field blank. Use the date format: dd/mmm/yyyy.
Description	Enter the service description. The description displays in the invoice beside the fee code.
Alternate Description	If the service has an alternate description, enter it here. Alternate descriptions help billers search for fee codes. When a biller enters a search term into the Fee Code/Desc area on a bill, the EMR includes fee codes with matching alternate descriptions.
Service Provider	If this code is to be used for only one provider, click the provider’s name.
Service Location	If your provider(s) bill for services conducted out of multiple Service Locations, and this service is typically billed from only one Service location, click the Service Location. This field is applicable only for MSP fee codes. When you create a bill using this fee code, the Location list defaults to the service location you select here. .
Diagnostic Code	Required for Electronic Billing: If a diagnostic code is required to bill the fee code, select this check box. When selected, billers receive a prompt to enter a diagnosis code if no code is assigned to the bill. Default for Billing: To specify a default ICD9 code for bills using this fee code, in the Default For Billing field, enter all or part of the ICD9 code or description, and then click Search. Then, in the list, click the ICD9 code you want.
Age Range (Years)	If the fee code is to be used only for patients in a certain age range, enter the minimum and/or maximum age (in years) in the From and Up to fields. For example, if the fee code is for patients 65 years and older, enter 65 in the From field, and then leave the Up to field blank.
Include in default list	Select to include the fee code in your clinic’s default fee code list. You can assign up to 50 fee codes to your default list.
Units	To define the number of units a patient or third party can be billed for, in the Min and Max fields, enter the minimum and maximum number of units.
Gender	If the fee code is to be used only for patients of a certain gender, in the list, click the gender.
Billing Edits area
In the Billing Edits area, you can customize the billing workflow/process for bills with this fee code. You can: Force billers to enter information in certain fields on a bill. Restrict what values billers can enter in certain fields on a bill. Enable billers to edit values that are not normally editable on a bill. Enable a code to be billed only on a weekday or only on a weekend. The following rows describe how each selection affects the bill when you bill the fee code. Ignore all options that are not described below.
Service Time From	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter a service Start time in the Service Detail window, in the Service Times area.
Service Time To	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter a service End time in the Service Detail window, in the Service Times area.
Service Call Time	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter a service Call Time in the Service Detail window, in the Service Dates area.
Service ‘To Date’	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter a service end date in the Service Detail window, in the Service Dates area, in the To field.
Hospital Use	When you bill the fee code, Hospital check box is selected by default.
Referral Req’d	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter a referring provider in the Service Detail window, in the Referral Data area.
Allow Rate Change	When you bill the fee code, the EMR enables you to edit the rate. If you do not select this check box, you cannot edit the rate.
Notes	When you bill the fee code, the EMR forces you to enter notes in the Service Detail window, in the Notes field.
Weekends Only	The EMR allows you to bill this fee code only if the service date falls on a weekend.
Not Weekends	The EMR does not allow you to bill this fee code if the service date falls on a weekend.
Type	Depending on the Type selected in the list, the EMR forces you to enter a service Start Time, an End Time, both Start and End Time, or either a Start or End Time.
Min Call Time Max Call Time	If you enter a Call Time in the Service Detail window, the EMR forces you to enter the Min Call Time. The EMR also restricts you from entering a time later than the Max Call Time.
Billing Interval area
If the fee is for a service that is billed based on time (in minutes), in the Billing Interval area, you can define how intervals of billed time are charged.
Type	Click one of the following options: Day: To bill based on intervals of days Minute: To bill based on intervals of minutes
Interval amount	Enter the amount that constitutes one interval.

When you finish entering information on the Data tab, click Save

To delete a fee code, from the Fee Code Maintenance menu, click File > Delete Fee Code. When prompted, click Yes.

Tip: If you can still see the fee code on the fee schedule Search Results tab in the Fee Code Maintenance window, close the Fee Code Maintenance window, and then open it again. The fee code is now removed.

You can now:

Set rates for the fee code. See Defining rates for fee codes.

Set restrictions on how often the fee code can be billed. See Restricting how often fee codes can be billed (using service limits).