An important billing audit tool
Your Mini Practice Profile (MPP) is an important billing audit tool produced annually and available on the Doctors of BC website under my account [login required].
Mini Practice Profiles are available to physicians billing under MSC payment schedules (after one year of earnings of at least $1,000) based on the claims data submitted for payment to the Medical Services Plan (MSP).
Why should you read your Mini Practice Profile?
Mini Practice Profiles are designed to be user-friendly and provide a good comparison of a physician’s practice with that of other colleagues in their comparison group.
Over the years, data tracking tools have become more sophisticated. The Patterns of Practice Committee (POPC) and Doctors of BC provide Mini Practice Profiles (MPP) to all physicians who bill from the MSC Payment Schedules as an audit risk identification tool. The MPP data is taken from the larger Physician Annual Profile database the Ministry of Health uses to track and review billing patterns for medical practitioners.
One of the POPC’s mandates is to educate physicians about billing. The intent of the MPP is to inform and educate physicians about billing patterns. This includes informing physicians by “flagging” fee codes and/or service items where there is a significant difference in billing patterns compared to their peer groups.
The data presented in your MPP does not presume any wrongdoing concerning your billing practices. “Flags” indicate that a physician is a statistical outlier in that fee item or service code and may or may not be justified. Understanding the “flags” on your profile and reviewing and reflecting on billing patterns may help reduce a physician’s risk of an MSP audit.