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TELUS eClaims for Canadian Counselors: 5 Benefits for Your Practice

October 24, 2024

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By Christina Kruger-Woodrow

Disclaimer: This article is discipline-specific for Canadian mental health practitioners. Here at Front Desk Digital, we’ll cover new developments across health and wellness disciplines.

If you’re like me, the end of the year can be a scramble to submit insurance claims for extended healthcare. Between combing through my email for receipts and figuring out what I’ve submitted already, it’s not my favorite end-of-year activity.

However, I’m lucky to be in a position where I can afford to let things pile up. For many folks, paying upfront and then waiting for claims to be reimbursed can cause financial strain or be a deterrent to seeking extended healthcare altogether. This is especially true for mental health services and why it’s such a big deal that, as of June 16th, 2024, counselors can now direct bill with TELUS eClaims.

With direct billing, clients only pay the uninsured portion of their visit and they don’t have to submit claims themselves, taking a lot of the financial strain out of therapy.

These client benefits are something that Liane Wood, a Jane Ambassador and Registered Psychotherapist, is very familiar with. Liane switched to TELUS last year for her private practice in Belleville, Ontario, and saw the benefits firsthand for her practitioners and clients alike.

In addition to her group practice, Liane is also the CEO of Build Your Private Practice Inc., where she and her team have been helping mental health practitioners launch, grow, and scale thriving private practices through online courses, mentoring, and business coaching since 2016.

Liane’s focus on “empowering therapists to create the private practices of their dreams while maintaining excellence in client care” gives her a valuable perspective on the business end of a practice while centering the client experience first and foremost.

A screenshot of a Zoom conversation with Liane Wood of Build Your Private Practice and Michel Charbonneau from TELUS. Their names are in a lower-third underneath each of their photos. Liane has short, grey hair with glasses. Michel has dark hair and glasses. The design around them is light blue with dark blue illustrations of a coin with a dollar sign, and a pill with a dollar sign

In our webinar Direct Billing for Mental Health Practitioners with Jane App and Telus eClaims, she spoke with Michel Charbonneau from TELUS about direct billing for counselors — and how you can get started.

Here are Liane and Michel’s top benefits of direct billing for counselors:

Benefit #1: eClaims remove the financial barrier for clients seeking therapy

Top of mind for Liane was how direct billing “takes the financial strain off of clients paying upfront and then waiting to be reimbursed by their insurance companies.” For many clients, the upfront cost of paying the full session amount isn’t affordable and can even be a deterrent to seeking therapy. Not to mention the added time and effort of submitting claims to their insurance on their own and waiting for reimbursement.

When counselors direct bill with TELUS, they can submit claims and eligibility checks for clients and receive real-time claim responses and coverage information. This means that clients only end up paying for their deductible and they have the peace of mind of knowing their coverage in advance.

Benefit #2: eClaims take the transaction out of treatments

Liane has also found that “using direct billing has freed us up from needing to follow up with clients about money so it’s taken that concern and that extra work out of the client relationship completely”.

Depending on their coverage, clients may not have to pay for their visits at all, or just have a small deductible owing. While payment isn’t a subject to avoid, it can still feel like a relief to end a session on a healing note rather than a transactional one.

Benefit #3: eClaims keep cash flow steady

When she first started using TELUS eClaims to direct bill, one of the things Liane was concerned about was how fast she would receive payments from insurers. Would the clinic’s cash flow remain steady or would they need to make some adjustments?

“What I found is that when using TELUS eClaims, I’m receiving payments sometimes as fast as the next day for a couple of the insurance companies. But most of them are reimbursing within a similar timeframe to when I was receiving credit card payments,” Liane said.

Benefit #4: eClaims reduce admin work

Another problem direct billing can solve is accidentally duplicating work or missing details.

If you’re using multiple systems to submit your billings and record insurance claims, your admin work can get a bit messy. Working across multiple systems makes it more difficult to keep information up to date which can lead to mix-ups.

As a mental health practitioner, your time is valuable. With one streamlined system like TELUS eClaims, you’ll save time on admin work and can focus more on your clients.

Benefit #5: eClaims help your practice stand out

Michel shared some insights that they’ve collected from their clients at TELUS. Most notably, four out of five insured Canadians agree that direct billing will improve their experience when visiting their healthcare professional and that half of them would consider changing healthcare professionals to benefit from direct billing.

While those numbers are looking at clients using extended healthcare services more broadly, it speaks to the value clients see in direct billing. Liane puts it best: “It can really attract clients to your practice who need therapy but can’t afford to pay upfront and wait for their insurance companies to reimburse them.”

A checklist design against a light blue background. The header, in black text, reads: "The benefits of direct billing through TELUS eClaims", followed by a square filled in with a white background and five white checkmarks in blue circles. The first point reads: "Remove the financial barrier for clients seeking therapy". The second point reads: "Take the transaction out of treatments." The third point reads: "Keep cash flow steady". The fourth point reads: "Reduce admin work." The fifth point reads: "Help your practice stand out."

How to register for TELUS eClaims

If you’re ready to join the over 100,000 healthcare providers using TELUS eClaims, you can head to telushealth.com/eClaims to sign up for free. TELUS will then do a quick check with your provincial college and if you’re in good standing, they provide access to your TELUS portal.

You can use Telus eClaims without a practice management software/EMR. You can register and access the Telus portal from your web browser — nothing else required.

Michel shared that, as of August 2024, sign-ups for Canadian counselors had reached nearly 1,700. His enthusiasm came across when talking with Liane: “Our team is very, very, very excited,” he says. “We realized there was a need for counselors to offer direct billing and we’re very happy to have it onboard now.”

Due to the large number of sign-ups, Michel cautioned that it could take up to 2-3 weeks after signing up before counselors receive access to their TELUS portal.

He shared that new provider roles and insurers will continue to be added in the future. “This is an ever-growing solution and we can’t wait for you to be part of it.”

Looking for more insights to improve the practitioner and client experience?

We’re more than happy to help. For in-depth advice on managing our practice, we’ve got your back with Front Desk magazine — our biannual publication dedicated to helping you succeed in your clinic.

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