Definitions for Health care rebate

Ancillary supply

An exempt supply of property or a service you make for which you receive an amount, other than a nominal amount, of medical funding. Also, to be an ancillary supply, the following must apply:

• The service you provide is a service of organizing or coordinating the making of facility supplies or home medical supplies; or
• The property or service you supply will be used, at least partly, to make a facility supply. The part of your supply that is used as such is considered to be an ancillary supply. However, your supply cannot be a home medical supply or a facility supply itself.

Examples of supplies that could be ancillary supplies are laboratory and diagnostic services, centralized laundry services, and in-patient meal services.

Facility supply

An exempt supply of property or a service that is made available or provided to a patient, at least partly, at a public hospital or a qualifying facility. The property or service must be provided as part of a medically necessary health care process and all of the following conditions must be met:

1. A physician or a midwife must provide, direct, or supervise the health care process. A nurse practitioner can take the place of the physician if no physician is available locally.
2. If the patient requires chronic care and must stay overnight at the public hospital or qualifying facility:
   • a registered nurse and a physician (or in the absence of a local physician, a nurse practitioner) must be available at all times; and
   • for more than 10% of each day or part of the day that the patient is at the hospital or qualifying facility, the patient must receive therapeutic health care services, including registered nursing care.
3. If you do not operate the public hospital or qualifying facility, you must receive an amount of medical funding for making the supply of the property or service. The medical funding cannot be a nominal amount.

Home medical supply

An exempt supply of property or a service that you provide or make available to a patient in their home. To be a home medical supply, you have to receive medical funding for making the supply. The medical funding you receive cannot be a nominal amount.

Also, the supply must be part of a medically necessary health care process and all of the following must apply:

1. You do not provide the property or service at a public hospital or a qualifying facility;
2. A physician has confirmed that the health care process can take place in the patient's home or lodging;
3. A person responsible for co-ordinating the health care process has authorized that the property or service you are providing can be given to the patient. The person responsible could be, for example, a nurse acting as case manager for a patient receiving various health care services in their home after treatment in a hospital for an injury.
4. It is reasonnable to expect that the person co-ordinating the health care process must be consulting with or following instructions given by a physician. An example is a nurse acting as case manager who consults with a physician about changes in a patient's treatment after discharge from the hospital.
5. 10% or less of the property and services included in the main supply to a patient are meals, accommodation, ordinary household duties, assistance with daily living, social and recreational services, and other similar property or services.

Medical funding

An amount of money, other than a nominal amount you receive as payment for providing a health care service or as financial assistance to help you provide the health care service. A forgivable loan can be considered medical funding, if the other conditions below are met. However, any other type of loan, refund, remission, rebate or credit of tax, duties, or fees is not medical funding. To qualify, the amount must be paid to you by:

1. A government; or
2. A charity, public institution, or qualifying non-profit organization whose purpose is to organize or coordinate the delivery of health care services. The primary source of funding for health care services must be a government and this funding must be received and payable to you in the same fiscal year that you supply the health care services. If not, the amount is not medical funding.

Midwife

A person who is permitted to practise midwifery under provincial law.

Physician

A person who is permitted to practise medicine under provincial law.

Qualifying facility

A facility, other than a public hospital, that meets all of the following conditions during a fiscal year, or for a part of a fiscal year:

1. The facility is federally or provincially authorized to provide health care services for that year, or for that part of the year.
2. You receive an amount of qualifying funding for the facility for the year, or for that part of the year. The funding cannot be a nominal amount.
3. The services you ordinarily supply at the facility during the fiscal year, or during that part of the fiscal year, must be facility supplies.

Qualifying funding

An amount of money payable to the operator of a facility as:

• financial assistance to operate the facility;
• payment for an exempt supply of making the facility itself available, so that facility supplies can be made there; or
• payment for facility supplies it provides at the facility.

Also, to be considered qualifying funding, the amount must be paid to you by:

• a government; or
• a charity, public institution, or qualifying non-profit organization whose purpose is to organize or coordinate the delivery of health care services. The primary source of funding for health care services must be a government and this funding must be received and payable to you in the same fiscal year that you supply the health care services. If not, the amount is not qualifying funding for those services.

Whether you receive qualifying funding is important in determining if you are a facility operator for all or any part of a fiscal year.

If you operate a facility and you receive qualifying funding for an entire fiscal year, that funding is considered qualifying funding for the whole year, if all conditions above are met. This means that you are a facility operator for the whole year.

If you operate a facility and you receive qualifying funding for only a part of a fiscal year, that funding is considered qualifying funding for that particular part of the fiscal year, if all conditions above are met. This means that you are a facility operator for that part of the year.

Note
A forgivable loan is qualifying funding, where all other conditions are met. However, any other type of loan, refund, remission, rebate or credit of tax, duties, or fees is not qualifying funding.