Provincial Attachment System Resources and Support for Providers

On this page:

• About the Provincial Attachment System  

• How to Register for the Provincial Attachment System 

• How to maintain your panel in the Panel Registry 

• Delegating Provincial Attachment System tasks to a non-provider 

• Technical and Training Supports 

• Frequently Asked Questions about the Provincial Attachment System  

​About the Provincial Attachment System:

The Provincial Attachment System (PAS) was designed to connect patients without a primary care provider to participating providers in their community in a coordinated and seamless way. The PAS will help us to better understand attachment progress and capacity throughout B.C. It will also provide better data for primary care provider compensation models that rely on attachment numbers including the Longitudinal Family Physician (LFP) payment model. 

Participation in the PAS, including keeping panel information updated in the Patient Panel Registry and clinic information entered in the Clinic and Provider Registry, is a requirement for family physicians (FP) enrolled in the LFP payment model and physicians who receive Community Longitudinal Family Physician (CLFP) payments. 

A commitment to using PAS is also required for receiving any relevant PAS incentive payments for both FPs and nurse practitioners (NPs). Data to confirm that primary care providers are meeting their attachment targets will be pulled from the PAS moving forward. 

In the PAS Patient Panel Registry, family physicians and nurse practitioners can upload and maintain their patient panel. This includes indicating in the system when you have capacity to take on new patients and reviewing / selected new patients as recommended by the attachment coordination team from the Health Connect Registry.  This functionality presents an easy solution for new-to-practice providers and others in the early stages of building up their patient panels and will support providers at all stages in their career in improving attachment in their community and throughout the province.

Trust and rapport between patients and providers is a priority. This means there must be flexibility and choice during the matching process for both parties. Both providers and patients will have an opportunity to decide if a provider-patient match is a good fit for them.

The goal is for PAS to reduce administrative burden for providers by eliminating the need for clinics to individually manage attachment waitlists and establish consistent attachment processes in all communities in B.C. It will also provide important information to measure the progress of connecting patients and capacity in the health system, so that together we can effectively plan for the future and create a stronger, more accessible primary care system in B.C. 

Moving forward, all communities in B.C. will be using the PAS as a single, centralized waitlist for connecting patients with primary care providers. It is an expectation that communities and/or Primary Care Networks (PCNs) will follow the attachment and patient prioritization processes that have been developed by HealthLink BC.

How to Register for the Provincial Attachment System:

Primary care providers , please follow the registration steps below. You can also take a look at this infographic:

1. Create Your BCProvider Account via OneHealthID 

• To do this you will need to download and log into the BC Services Card App.

2. ​ Log into PAS and confirm your provider profile is correct.  ​​​​

• You may need to authenticate your information through the Microsoft Authenticator App the first time you log in. Further information can be found here.

3. ​ Upload your clean and accurate patient panel via Dr. Bill or your EMR. 

• ​Find information on preparing an up-to-date patient panel here.
• Find additional information on how to submit your panel here.
• Once you have uploaded your panel information, it will be available in PAS within a couple of days.  

4. Indicate in PAS if you have the capacity to take patients and if so, how many.
5. Ensure that your patient panel and capacity for taking on new patients remains up to date in PAS.
6. If you are a clinic lead/medical director, you are required to ensure that clinic details including staff, contact information and opening hours are correct and up to date in the Clinic and Provider Registry.

Please note that providers are required to have a facility ID to upload their panels via Dr. Bill. If you do not have a facility ID, you may need to request a facility ID from HIBC. You will need to fill out the attached request form “MSP Application for MSP Facility Number New” (gov.bc.ca) and submit by fax. Please select "BCP not to be applied" in section B, when completing the request. It will take 15-20 business days to process this request.

Any patients who are without a primary care provider should register for the Health Connect Registry through the HealthLink BC website.

How to maintain your panel in the Panel Registry:

After you have added your panel to PAS, it is important to keep it up to date. Accurate panels support a clear picture of our primary care system in B.C. with reliable information on how many people are connected to a primary care provider and how many are still waiting throughout B.C.

Primary care providers are encouraged to delegate tasks in the PAS, including keeping panels up to date, to their Medical Office Assistants (MOAs) or other clinical staff. Instructions for how to delegate tasks in PAS can be found here.

To add new patients to your panel in PAS:

• Submit the $0 attachment code 98990 to MSP/Teleplan through your EMR or billing software. This addition will be reflected in your PAS panel within a few days. Please only begin adding patients after you have done an initial bulk upload of your panel to PAS using Dr. Bill.

To remove patients from your panel in PAS:

• Select the patient that you would like to remove and click the “remove” button in PAS. Please note that removing a patient in PAS will NOT remove them from your EMR. Please also ensure that you remove the patient separately in your EMR. Work is underway to integrate PAS and EMRs in the future.

Delegating Provincial Attachment System tasks to other clinic staff (e.g., a Medical Office Assistant):

Providers can delegate their responsibilities in PAS to someone who is not a family physician or nurse practitioner by completing the endorsement process in OneHealthID. The endorsement process can be initiated by the endorser or the endorsee. Once the endorsement process has been initiated, the other party will receive an email asking them to confirm the endorsement.

Delegating responsibilities in PAS may be especially helpful when you are accepting new patients. Doing so will provide your delegate the opportunity to work directly in PAS to select and confirm new patients from the Health Connect Registry for your practice. This can help to speed up the attachment process and make it easier for both patients and providers.

Infographics with instructions for the endorsement process can be found here:

• Endorsement Physician Initiated 
• Endorsement Unlicensed Initiated

Technical and Training Supports:

PAS training resources including videos, user guides, infographics, system demos etc. can be found directly in the PAS system. 

To access these resources in PAS, navigate to the top menu bar in the system and click on “user guides”.

These partner websites have information to common provider questions about the Provincial Attachment System:

• Specific to family physicians  [Doctors of BC]
• Specific to nurse practitioners [Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC)]