An expedited consultation includes both the physical examination and the report. This means you won’t be able to use any other office visit fee codes or report fee codes in addition to this.
You can bill an initial or repeat expedited consultation if you’re a specialist physician or a referring physician. If you’re a non-specialist physician with areas of expertise (for example, sports medicine) then you need to get pre-approval by WorkSafeBC. If that’s the case call 1-604-276-3344 (or 1-888-967-5377 ext. 3344).
Your report needs to contain the following information:
- Purpose of examination
- Nature of injury
- Your patient’s present complaints
- Objective findings
- Diagnosis or differential diagnosis
- Information regarding causation including risk factors other than work; and
- Recommendations regarding work restrictions as related to the work injury/disease.
WorkSafeBC needs to receive the report within 15 days of the referral.
For any other Consultations, the report must be received within 5 business days of the consultation.
If you’re the consulting physician and you believe that your patient is able to return to work then the report needs to be received within 3 days of the consultation.