Inpatient Care

FPSC has provided significant support, with individual physician payments as well as inpatient care network and bridge funding, through the Divisions to help care for both assigned and unassigned patients in hospital. 

Through the LFP Payment Model, a significant investment has been made in primary care to help address historic compensation gaps and offer a streamlined payment structure. The transition to a new payment model in primary care, along with changes in FPSC funding supports for this work, represents a momentous change. Support is needed to ensure ongoing service provision during this transitional time.  
 
FPSC supports are designed to provide more time for: 

  • Physicians to better understand LFP Payment Model compensation for inpatient care, and the ways in which it differs from fee-for-service, as well as potential opportunities and impacts related to service delivery.   
  • Communities to undertake local planning, in partnership with their health authority, to evolve existing delivery models or develop new models as needed in response to LFP-facility billing and FPSC supports.  
  • Doctors of BC, BC Family Doctors and the Ministry of Health to discuss and address longer-term solutions to concerns raised by physicians providing inpatient care.

Resources:

For more information about FPSC supports, please email fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca.

FPSC funding administered by the Divisions of Family Practice

FPSC Transition Funding for Inpatient Care—extended until September 2025.

This time-limited funding consolidates and replaces bridge and stabilization funding and the additional transition funding supports previously announced for October to December. The maximum transition funding amount per hospital location is equivalent to current FPSC inpatient care funding (bridge + stabilization + unassigned inpatient care network) and is intended to be applied if needed to help maintain current inpatient care service levels, including to unassigned patients. The funding was set to end on March 31, 2025 but been extended to September 2025 due to the delay in the launch of the Comprehensive Care Payment.

More details about any process needed to extend transition funds will be shared with Divisions in March 2025.  If you have any questions, please contact fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca.

Every effort must be taken to maintain current inpatient service levels, including for unassigned patients. If there are concerns about the ability to maintain services, please contact FPSC at fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca as soon as possible. Funding is payable to family physicians providing inpatient care services under the LFP Payment Model, fee-for-service, or blended capitation. Funding is not payable to family physicians providing inpatient care services under an AP (alternative payment) contract (e.g. hospitalist contract). Payments paid to individual family physicians by the Division from transition funding must not exceed current payments being paid by the Division to physicians for inpatient care. Payments to family physicians providing inpatient care services under the LFP Payment Model are subject to additional parameters below.  

If you have questions, please contact FP.billing@doctorsofbc.ca.

Reporting requirements 
With the introduction of LFP-facility billing and changes to FPSC inpatient care supports, this transition period provides a valuable opportunity to learn about the impacts of these changes, assess ways to improve the payment model, and inform FPSC how we can continue to support family doctors to work together to provide inpatient care in their communities.  

Ongoing: Divisions will continue to engage with FPSC leadership, including sharing service modeling and representative physician compensation information, to help both the Division and the provincial team to better understand the impacts of the LFP Payment Model and inform longer term approaches. 

  • We anticipate that LFP facility-based billing will represent a significant increase over fee-for-service compensation for many if not most family physicians, providing this care. As the transition funding is a short-term source of funding, we want to avoid setting unrealistic compensation expectations for physicians. 
    • Payments should be used to support on-call availability, unassigned inpatient care networking, physician recruitment, or other activities not currently covered by the LFP Payment Model. 
    • Payments may not be used to pay for services already paid for by the LFP Payment Model. This includes direct/indirect patient care time, patient visits, assessments, admissions, discharges, or procedures. 
    • In practice settings where LFP payments for inpatient care services are expected to exceed current compensation (e.g. fee-for-service + FPSC inpatient care funding), no additional payments should be provided from transition funding. 
    • In practice settings where LFP payments for inpatient care services are expected to be below current compensation (e.g. fee-for-service + FPSC inpatient care funding), additional payments may be paid from transition funding to maintain, not increase, current compensation level. As needed, Divisions are expected to adjust/decrease current payments to meet this parameter. 
  • Funding may be used to support physician engagement activities (e.g. sessional payments) as part of local planning of inpatient care programs. 
  • Divisions may allocate up to 10% of funding to administration expenses. At least 90% of utilized funding must be paid to FPs. 
  • Funding must not be used to cover medical services provided by specialists or other health care providers. 
  • Funding must not be used to fund equipment purchases or infrastructure upgrades. 

FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for Inpatient Care—available starting September 2025.

What is the FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for Inpatient Care and when will it be available?

Starting in September 2025, the FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for Inpatient Care will be available to support family physicians to work together to provide on-call availability to hospital inpatients. This funding will provide an amount of $182,000 (aligned with MOCAP level 2) per hospital for 24 hours/7 days per week/365 days per year. The funding will be administered by local Divisions of family practices. Divisions can apply for additional funding to support the administration cost of operating call groups. 

More details about the FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for Inpatient Care will be shared once available.

Can family physicians receive more than one on-call/availability payment if they are providing on-call coverage for inpatient and long-term care at the same time?

Effective September 2025, when the FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for inpatient care is introduced, the maximum on-call payment for physicians covering both inpatient care and LTC at the same time will increase to up to 1.5 times the maximum cap for an individual service (based on current weekly/daily maximum parameters).

Divisions can also submit proposals to repurpose existing unspent on-call/availability funds for the Long-term Care Initiative (LTCI) as part of FPSC’s commitment to flexibility when meeting community service needs. This includes physician sessional payments for quality improvement (QI) and leadership, and/or physician payments for attachment stipends, first available bed, and recruitment incentives. Unspent funds must be allocated to physician payments only.  
 
Please contact FPSCLTCI@doctorsofbc.ca for details on the process for submitting these proposals.  
 
Unspent on-call/availability funds for inpatient care can be repurposed specifically to support inpatient care activities. More details about the FPSC On-Call/Availability Funding for inpatient care will be shared as soon as they become available.

Unassigned Inpatient Care (“GU”) Funding—FPSC paid the final GU funding installment to the Divisions of Family Practice in May 2024.

This was a quarterly lump sum incentive based on the annual volume of unassigned inpatients that was available for each hospital with a community family-physician-run unassigned inpatient care model. FPSC paid the final GU funding installment to the Divisions of family practice in May 2024 to support inpatient care services from July to September 2024. The Divisions or self-organizing groups administered the funding. This funding will be replaced by the FPSC Transition Funding for Inpatient Care from April 1 to September 30, 2025.

 

Payments directly to family physicians

Assigned Inpatient Care Network Payment (previously 14086) - new claim process starting April 2025

The Assigned Inpatient Care Network Payment is payable to family physicians (FPs) who provide inpatient care services for their own and colleagues’ patients (assigned) in hospital facilities. Eligible FPs who meet the eligibility criteria can receive up to $8,400 per year. Payments will be remitted to eligible physicians on a quarterly basis ($2,100 per quarter). Physicians who submit their claim forms by the specified deadlines below can expect to receive their quarterly instalments by the respective payment dates:

Payment period

Claim form received on or before

Payment to be made no later than

April 1 - June 30, 2025

May 4, 2025

June 13, 2025

July 1 - September 30, 2025

August 1, 2025

September 15, 2025

October 1 - December 31, 2025

November 1, 2025

December 15, 2025

Jan 1 – March 31, 2026

February 1, 2026

March 15, 2026

What has changed, beginning in April 2025?  

Physicians previously claimed this network payment every quarter by submitting the MSP fee code 14086. Beginning in April 2025, physicians participating in the Assigned Inpatient Care Network will claim the payment by submitting an FPSC claim form once annually. The payment amount remains the same and will continue to be remitted directly to physicians via their preferred MSP payee number on a quarterly basis.  

Eligibility Requirements 

To be eligible as a member of an Assigned Inpatient Care Network, FPs must meet the following eligibility criteria:  

  • Be a Family Physician in active practice in BC.  Have active hospital privileges. 
  • Be associated and registered with a minimum of three other network members (special consideration will be given to those hospital communities with fewer than four doctors providing inpatient care). 
  • Co-operate with other members of the network so that one member is always available to care for patients of the assigned inpatient network. 
  • Each doctor must provide MRP care to at least 24 admitted patients over the course of a year; networks may average this number across their total members. 
  • The assigned inpatient care network payment is payable for participation in the network activities for most of the following calendar quarter (50% plus 1 day). 

Please note that this network incentive is payable in addition to visit fees, but is inclusive of the time spent in associated Quality Improvement activities necessary to maintain privileges (M and M rounds, time spent on network administration, etc.). 

Please note that physicians who are substituting on a temporary basis for another physician who is away from practice for a defined time-period are not eligible to claim this payment. In these situations, host physician can continue to claim the payment directly and distribute it to their locum physician based on internal arrangements.  

Physicians who provide services on a long-term basis (e.g., as a “practice associate” or “long term locum”) may claim this payment directly, provided they meet all eligibility requirements. If you have questions about your eligibility for this payment, please contact fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca. 

Steps to claim payment

Eligible physicians will receive an invitation email in early April with instructions for claiming the payment, as well as a quarterly email confirming that they continue to meet the eligibility criteria. If you believe you are eligible for this payment but have not received an invitation email, please review the Assigned Inpatient Care Network FAQs and contact fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca to inquire about your eligibility. 

To retroactively claim the Assigned Inpatient Care Network fee (14086) prior to April 1, 2025, please review our FAQ document for instructions and/or contact fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca for further instructions. 

Unassigned Inpatient Care Fee 14088—remains payable for FPs on fee-for-service

This fee pays $150 per hospital admission to the physician who accepts MRP status for the unassigned inpatient’s hospital stay. 14088 remains payable to family physicians who do not opt into the LFP Payment Model for inpatient care and remain on fee-for-service. 14088 is not payable to physicians remunerated by the LFP Payment Model for inpatient care.

Please review the eligibility criteria for 14088 in the FPSC Inpatient Care Billing Guide. Please contact fp.billing@doctorsofbc.ca with any questions. 

Updated March 21, 2025