Improving Access to Mental Health Care

More Albertans will receive the mental health care they need as a result of billing code changes allowing psychiatrists to provide additional virtual care.

Alberta’s government is making changes to allow psychiatrists to bill for virtual indirect care as part of a psychiatric consultation. Currently, only time spent with a patient is counted toward virtual care billing code time requirements. Time taken with same-day patient management activities, such as reviewing patient history, ordering tests and completing the medical record, will now be eligible for payment.

Another change will allow psychiatrists to bill for time when a child’s treatment is discussed with their guardian. Currently, psychiatrists can only bill when talking with a patient directly.

These changes will be effective retroactively. Eligible services performed on or after February 1, 2022, will be assessed on the basis of enhanced billing codes for virtual psychiatric care. The changes build on virtual care expansions the government and the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) announced in December 2021 to encourage more physicians to provide care virtually and make virtual health care more readily available to Albertans.

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