Fee Schedules: Pension Schedules

Many practices choose to charge pensioners and other concession card holders a different rate to standard patients. MediRecords lets you set this up as its own Fee Schedule, so pension pricing can be applied consistently and assigned to the providers and practices that need it.

Contents:

1. Choosing a Schedule Type for Pension Billing
2. Before You Begin
3. Creating a Pension Fee Schedule
4. Assigning the Schedule
5. Deactivating or Deleting a Schedule
6. Troubleshooting

Choosing a Schedule Type for Pension Billing

There are two schedule types suited to pension billing:

• MBS-derived, uses the MBS item codes and fee schedule, with a fixed margin (either a dollar value or percentage) applied on top of the MBS fee. This suits practices with a simple, consistent rule across all items, for example, charging pensioners at the MBS rate with no additional margin, while a separate derived schedule (e.g. +20%) covers standard private patients.
   
• MBS Custom, uses the MBS item codes, but each item is assigned its own custom fee. This suits practices that want item-by-item control, for example, discounted pricing on a specific set of commonly billed consults or procedures.

Before You Begin

• Decide whether pensioners will be charged at the MBS rate, a further discounted rate, or a curated set of item prices.
• Decide whether one Pension schedule will cover all providers, or whether some providers need their own version.
• Confirm you have the Schedule Assignment and Item permissions (part of the Billing Item & Fee Schedule permission bundle) before starting. See Security Role Configuration for more on permissions.

Creating a Pension 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. Enter a name for your schedule. 
5. Click Schedule Type and select either MBS Derived or MBS Custom, based on which approach suits your practice (see above). 
6. Fill in the additional schedule details as required. The Name and Item code must be unique.
7. Click Save to create the schedule.
   

If you've chosen MBS Custom, you'll then need to add the specific items you want to price for pension billing:

1. Tick the box beside the new schedule and click Add Item. 

   

   
    

2. Input the Item Code and select the suggested item number that appears. 

   

   
    

3. Complete the Name, Amount, and any other required fields.
4. Repeat for each item you commonly bill to pensioners.

Assigning the Schedule

Once created, the schedule needs to be assigned to the providers who will use it.

1. From the Schedules window (More > Settings > Accounts > Schedules), select the schedule.

2. Click More, then Assign Schedule. 

   

   
    

3. Tick the box next to each user or practice the schedule should apply to. If it should apply to all, use the very top most tick-box to select all.

   

   
    

Deactivating or Deleting a Schedule

You can only delete or deactivate schedules created by you or someone in your practice. Supplied schedules, such as the MBS schedule, cannot be deleted or deactivated, they can only be unassigned from the users who shouldn't see them.

To delete or deactivate a schedule, select it within the list of Schedules, and then use the appropriate button.

Note: Deleted fee schedules cannot be recovered. 

Troubleshooting

• The Pension schedule isn't available when invoicing: confirm it has been assigned to both the provider and the practice you're billing under.
• An item shows no price under an MBS Custom Pension schedule: add that item to the schedule and set an Amount, only items you've added are billable under MBS Custom.

Further Reading

• Fee Schedules & Custom Billing Items: Management