Fee Schedules & Custom Billing Items: Management

Fee schedules in MediRecords let your practice manage billing accurately across Medicare, DVA, private health funds, and your own custom fee structures. You can create custom and MBS-derived fee schedules, add and edit individual items within them, and assign schedules to specific Practices or Providers so billing stays consistent across your team. This article covers creating, editing, and assigning Fee Schedules, and managing the items within them, including how to add, edit, deactivate, or delete items as needed.

Contents

1. Fee Schedules Overview
2. Creating a Custom Fee Schedule
3. Creating a Custom MBS Schedule
4. Adding Items to a Schedule
5. Confirming which Items are on a Schedule
6. Editing an Item
7. Deleting an Item
8. Deactivating/Reactivating an Item
9. Editing an Existing Fee Schedule
10. Deleting a Fee Schedule
11. Assigning Fee Schedules
12. Unassigning Fee Schedules
13. Searching Fee Schedules
14. Troubleshooting

Fee Schedules Overview

The MediRecords system employs schedules to handle various fee schedules, such as the Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS), Department of Veteran's Affairs (DVA), Health Fund, and Custom schedules. Each schedule is associated with unique item numbers and pricing, depending on the payer and payee. These schedules can be allocated to specific Practices and Providers, restricting their use to these designated individuals.

There are 3 general types of Fee Schedules:

MBS-derived Schedule - Uses the MBS item codes and fee schedule with a fixed margin (either dollar value or percentage) on top of the MBS fee.

MBS Custom - Uses the MBS item codes, however, each item is assigned a custom fee.

Custom - A custom fee schedule with unique item codes, unrelated to the MBS schedule.

The settings for Schedules are located within the Accounts section of the Settings page of MediRecords.

1. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, then click Settings and click Accounts.
    
2. Click Schedules.

When starting to use MediRecords, there are several schedules available by default. They are classified as Supplied, and are able to be seen by clicking on Filter and Yes under Supplied.

If you would like to bill based on a private schedule or another schedule not listed, the system is able to create a Custom Schedule.

The different types of custom schedules able to be created are:

1. MBS Derived - Uses the MBS item codes and fee schedule with a fixed margin (either dollar value or percentage) on top of the MBS fee.
2. MBS Custom - Uses the MBS item codes, however, each item is assigned a custom fee.
3. Custom - A custom fee schedule with unique item codes, unrelated to the MBS schedule.

Creating a Custom Fee Schedule

1. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, then click Settings and click Accounts.
     
2. Click Schedules
     
3. Click New Schedule
     
4. Click Schedule Type
5. Click Custom
     
6. Fill in the additional schedule details as required
     
7. Click Save to create the schedule
    

Creating a Custom MBS Schedule

1. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, then click Settings and click Accounts.
   
    
2. Click Schedules
     
3. Click New Schedule
     
4. Click Schedule Type
5. Select MBS Custom
     
6. Fill in all the additional fields as required - The Name and Item code must be unique to the user
    
7. Click Save to create the schedule
    

Adding Items to a Schedule

1. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, then click Settings and click Accounts.
     
2. Click Schedules
     
3. Tick the box beside the preferred schedule and click Add Item
    
4. Input the Item Code
5. Select the suggested Item number that will appear
     
6. The Name, Amount, and Description will be automatically populated for you.
     
7. You can choose the preferred Tax Code
     
8. Click Save
     
9. You will see a notification that the item has been successfully added. Then Click OK.

Confirming which Items are on a Schedule

1. Go to Settings
2. Click Accounts
     
3. Click Schedules
     
4. Click the Schedule Name
     
5. You will now be present with an item search bar, please input your item code. 
     
6. In the below image, you can see that the item that we just created has been successfully added to the Schedule:

Editing an Item

1. Click More at the top of the page to reveal a drop-down list
2. Click Settings
3. Click Accounts
     
4. Click Schedules and click into the Fee Schedule you need to change.
     
5. If needed, search for the item. Tick the item on the left-hand side, and click Edit Item
     
6. Make any necessary adjustments, and click Save.
    

Deleting an Item

1. To delete an Item, tick the tick-box next to the item name to reveal a list of additional options
2. Select Delete Item
   
     
3. Click Yes to acknowledge that the item will be deleted.
   
     

Deactivating/Reactivating an Item

To change the status of an item, tick the tick box next to the item name to reveal a list of additional options for items.

Click Status and then click Activate or Deactivate.

Editing an Existing Fee Schedule

1. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, then click Settings and click Accounts.
     
2. Click Schedules
     

 3. Find the schedule you wish to edit by using the search bar or the filter as required, then click the Tick-Box next to the schedule record and click Open Schedule.

*NOTE: Only schedules marked as No under Supplied are able to be edited.

4. Edit the fields as required and click Save.

5. Click Yes to confirm the change.

6. The schedule has now been updated.

Deleting a Fee Schedule

Any changes made to these schedules will impact all those using the schedule in your practice.

1. Navigate to the accounts section in MediRecords by selecting More > Settings > Accounts
     
2. Select Schedules. This section will display all active schedules available to your practice:
   
     
3. To Delete a schedule, select the checkbox to the left of the desired schedule
4. Select Delete to delete the schedule
   
     
5. Click Yes on the confirmation prompt
   

Assigning Fee Schedules

Once you have created a Custom Fee Schedule, you need to assign it to some providers before you can use it. 

1. From the Schedules window (More > Settings > Accounts
    
2. Click Schedules
    
3. Select the schedule you wish to assign, then click More and Assign Schedule.
    
4. A list of all users, grouped by practice, is displayed.
5. Click the tick-Box next to an Individual User to assign the schedule to that user only.
   
    
6. Click the tick-Box next to a Practice to assign the schedule to each user in that practice.
   
    
7. Click the tick-box next to All to assign the schedule to every user across each practice.
   
    
8. Once completed, click Assign.
    

Unassigning Fee Schedules

1. To unassign a user from a schedule, untick the box next to the schedule you wish to assign, then click More and Assign Schedule.
    
2. Click the Tick-Box next to an Individual User to unassign the schedule to that user only.
     
3. Click the Tick-Box next to a Practice to unassign the schedule to each user in that practice.
     
4. Untick the box next to All to unassign the schedule from every user across each practice.
    
5. Once completed, click Assign.

Searching Fee Schedules

1. To search the schedules, navigate to the MediRecords menu ribbon then click More > Settings > Account
     
2. Click Schedules to show the list of all available schedules.
     
3. Find the schedule you wish to search in by using the search bar or the filter as required.
     
4. Click on the schedule name hyperlink and wait for this to load to show the full list of items and their details.
     
5. Find the item you wish to search for by using the search bar or the filter as required.
     
6. Click the drop-down arrow next to the item number to reveal the description and the schedule fee.
     
7. Click the drop-down arrow beside View Pricing to see the validity date of the schedule, and any previous fees and dates.

Troubleshooting

I can't create a new item under a national fee schedule (MBS, DVA, Health Funds, WorkCover, TAC)

Cause: Nationally recognised fee schedules are maintained centrally by MediRecords to keep them accurate and current. Practices cannot create or edit items directly within these schedules.

Resolution: For your own custom items, create them under your practice's own custom schedule instead of a national one.

Escalate: If an item you need is missing from a national schedule (MBS, DVA, Health Funds, WorkCover, or TAC), contact MediRecords Support so we can review and add it centrally.

Further Reading

• Fee Schedules: Pension Schedules
• Centralised Billing