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GP Covid-19 Episode Fee –Discovery Health
In recognition of the pressure that many family practitioners face in caring for COVID positive patients in their practices, outside of the intents of the formal billing rules and guidelines, Discovery Health in collaboration with the Family Practitioner Advisory Board (FPAB) is delighted to be launching a simple but effective benefit structure to appropriately reward family practitioners managing COVID-19 positive patients.
Discovery Health has developed a GP Covid-19 Episode Fee, offering a substantively higher reimbursement than the current fees for the treatment of COVID-19, from the Scheme risk pool and importantly, achieving a few other objectives:
• simple administration, as a global fee.
• coverage of all the "oftentimes unrewarded" elements of care including messages and psycho-social support / family advice.
• genuine matching of effort that FPs are contributing to care for COVID-19 patients, out of hospital, recognising that this disease is largely managed by GPs, out of hospital.
The COVID-19 episode fee will reimburse at R2 000 in 2020, and will be funded as a risk payment made directly to the practice, effected through the simple process of a single claim line billed to the Scheme. The fee will cover all Covid-related care delivered during a 14 day care episode and is open to any GP Network Doctor. The fee is active as of 14 August.
Discovery Health will share more details regarding the implementation of the fee and will inform all practices. The significance of the episode fee, is a means of recognizing and rewarding the uniqueness of the family practitioner effort.
Discovery Health is delighted to be able to offer this enhanced fee specifically to family practitioner’s in this time of dire need and uncertainty, and proud that it represents a contribution to appropriate reward and reimbursement for your exceptional contribution to care during the pandemic. We hope that the initiative will be positively received as intentioned as a strong signal to our country’s family practitioner’s that they are valued and their selfless work is appreciated. Discovery Health looks forward to our continued thriving and successful collaboration.
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