If you are a provider, the standard and most efficient way to bill AHCIP for a visit is from an encounter. If you start the encounter from the appointment, the bill is automatically linked to the appointment - making it easier to confirm that all your appointments are billed.

💡 Tip: If you use the same billing codes for certain appointment types or presenting issues, you can add billing items to encounter templates - allowing you to create a bill in a snap. See Adding billing items to encounter templates.

⚠️ Important: Before you can bill AHCIP through the CHR, the provider's user account must be integrated with H-Link. See Integrating your CHR account with H-Link.

Steps

1. Start an encounter from an appointment. See Other appointment actions.

2. If applicable, select an encounter template (with or without billing items added). See Starting an encounter.

3. In the Billing Items section of the encounter, if needed, modify the Insured Payment Detail or Alberta Care Insurance Plan Payment Detail information for the bill. See Modifying payment details (Alberta).

4. To add a billing item (service code) to the bill, click Insured Billing.

📌 Note: If you selected an encounter template with insured billing items added, the billing items are displayed. Click a billing item to modify or delete it.

📌 Note: Certain service codes must be billed with a diagnosis code. A warning appears when you try to save the bill in the Ready to Submit status without including a required diagnosis code.

5. Enter the service code information. See Adding billing items (service codes) for AHCIP bills (Alberta).

💡 Tip: You can reuse the patient past insured billing items by clicking the icon next to Insured Billing and selecting the billing item.

6. To save the billing item, click outside the Edit Alberta HLink Billing Item window. The service code is added to the bill.

7. To add additional service codes, click Insured Billing.

8. To edit a billing item, click it and make the required changes.

9. To delete a billing item, click it and click the trash can icon in the top-right corner.

10. Sign the Encounter.

📌 Note: The billing items do not appear in the Insured Billing of the patient's chart or in the Billing dashboard until you sign the encounter.

If your default billing status is Ready to Submit and there are no errors with the bill, the claim is submitted to H-Link today at 11 a.m. or 3:30 p.m. The claim status updates to Submitted.

⚠️ Important: The CHR has built-in billing rules for certain codes and specialities. When you save a billing item, a validation takes place. If there is any incorrect or missing information (such as a diagnosis or a billing practitioner) in your bill and your default billing status is:

💡 Tip: You can set the default status for new bills. See Setting the default billing item status for your account for more information.