Provincial billing number (OHIP or MSP)

A provincial billing number is what lets a health professional or facility claim payment from a province’s health plan. Buyers of medical, physiotherapy and similar practices meet it when asking how insured billing continues after the sale. The guide on records, licensing and approvals in a practice sale puts it in context.

Ontario

Ontario’s Health Insurance Act defines a billing number as the unique identifying number issued by the General Manager to a physician, practitioner or health facility. A physician, a practitioner or a health facility may only submit claims for payment to the plan, or receive payments from it under an arrangement the Act describes, if granted one. The ministry says health care professionals practising in Ontario must have an OHIP billing number, and that a group number is not a billing number.

British Columbia

British Columbia’s Medicare Protection Act enrols practitioners under section 13, and its definition of benefits under the Medical Services Plan includes medically required services rendered by a medical practitioner enrolled under that section, unless the commission determines under section 5 that they are not benefits. This entry covers Ontario and British Columbia only; check the plan in the province where the practice is.

What to check or ask

• Whose name each billing number is held in: a practitioner, a facility or a group.
• Which practitioners are staying and what each must do with the plan.
• Whether the plan needs notice or a new application after the sale.