Set up a provider as an individual contractor

Best Practice Software has received enquiries from our practices concerning how health providers who are individual contractors, rather than employee providers, should be set up in Bp Premier for Medicare Web Services.

This article describes how to set up your user account in Bp Premier to invoice under your ABN, including:

• Selecting an appropriate user role and recording an ABN.
• Using your individual ABN on invoices, statements, and templates.

PRODA accounts and individual contractors

From 28 August, all Bp Premier practices and providers must use a Provider Digital Access (PRODA) account to access Medicare Web Services.

If you are an individual contractor, you may have recently been advised that you should create an individual PRODA account rather than using a practice’s PRODA account, to reflect the contract nature of your relationship with the practice for accounting purposes.

Best Practice Software has not been advised of any requirement to use individual PRODA accounts by Services Australia at time of publication. Best Practice Software recommends that contractor doctors use their ABN on invoices and templates as described in this article.

For more information about PRODA, view this statement from Services Australia to Best Practice Software.

IMPORTANT  Best Practice Software cannot advise on whether a provider should consider themselves an individual contractor, and if they need an individual PRODA account. Providers should contact Services Australia or a financial professional for information on how their relationship with a practice should be defined in PRODA.

Record ABN in provider details

Select a user category to indicate a contract doctor role and record your individual ABN in provider details.

NOTE  You must have the Configuration permission set to Allow Access to add or change provider details

1. From the main screen of Bp Premier, select Setup > Users from the menu or press Shift+F4. The Users screen will appear.
2. Click Add or select an existing provider you wish to set up as a contractor and click Edit. The New user screen or the Edit user details screen will appear.
3. Complete the field in the User details screen. See Create the user record and Add provider details for more information.
4. Depending on your situation, you may wish to select the user category Contract Doctor or Registrar. These user categories are available in Saffron SP3 and later. A user category is only used to distinguish permissions to access Bp Premier functions.
5. Add your ABN to the ABN No: field.

Add your ABN to invoices and templates

If you have recorded an ABN in your provider record as described above, your ABN number will automatically be used on tax invoices for any account where you are the selected Provider. You do not need to enable this function.

You may also wish to use your ABN on other templates you use in Bp Premier, such as a medical certificate or referral.

To add an individual ABN to a template:

1. Select the Word Processor icon from the home screen, or select Utilities > Word processor.
2. Select Templates > New to create a new template, or select Templates > Edit to edit an existing template.
3. Placer your cursor in the location that the ABN is required.
4. From the template options on the left-hand side of the screen, select Doctor and double-click Doctor's ABN.

Last updated 05 July 2022