Background information from the BC Ministry of Health Services metadata dictionary, 2006
"Established in 1965, the Medical Services Plan (MSP) is the publicly funded program that pays for medical and health care services on behalf of residents of British Columbia. This includes all medically required services of general practitioners and specialists; laboratory services and diagnostic procedures, including x-rays and ultrasound examinations; and dental and oral surgery when performed in hospital. Supplementary health care benefits [were until January 1, 2002] provided through MSP, including chiropractic, dental surgery, massage therapy, naturopathy, physiotherapy, optometry, and podiatry services."
"The Medical Service Plan pays medical practitioners for insured services provided to people covered under the Medical Service Plan. Insured services are assigned a MSP fee item in the MSP fee schedule, which contains the fee item description and amount payable. The Medical Services Commission negotiates with the medical associations to determine the MSP fee schedule amount for insured services in B.C. Fee items and their corresponding fees become effective following approval by the Medical Services Commission (MSC)."
"The fee items are catalogued by specialty in the payment schedule, published by the MSC."
(BC Ministry of Health Services metadata dictionary, 2006)
The Population Data BC MSP data file(s) contains the ‘paid for item' (or fee item) field, which indicates the insured service for which the practitioner was paid.
Fee Item code lists
The latest version of the "MSC Payment Schedule, which is the list of fees (fee items) approved by the Medical Services Commission payable to physicians for insured medical services provided to beneficiaries enrolled with MSP" (BC Ministry of Health Services MSP website, 2008) can be found at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/practitioner-professional-resources/msp/physicians/payment-schedules/msc-payment-schedule. The files provided on the Ministry website are Adobe pdf files.
Cautionary Note
Fee items can, and do change over time. Therefore, caution is needed when analyzing data using the fee item field longitudinally. For example, the age group applicable to various ‘visit in office' fee item codes has changed over time. Also, new fee items are often introduced and others retired.
