Once a tentative agreement has been ratified by the parties, the negotiated funding from the agreement then needs to be assigned to various fee codes and other initiatives by the NBMS and agreed to by government. The NBMS and government representatives discuss priorities for the allocation of the negotiated funds in any given year and the NBMS goes through a process referred to as Fee Distribution. The Fee Distribution process has two phases.

Step 1
The FFS Economics Committee deals with relativity and the distribution of negotiated funds to each specialty. The committee produces various billing comparisons by specialty and reviews national comparisons of billings among specialty groups. Those with comparatively higher billings who are also competitive outside of New Brunswick are placed higher on the grid and may receive no increase or a minimal increase, while those who place comparatively lower, will receive a higher increase. The overall percentage and portion of funding available to the specialty for allocation is determined during this exercise.

Step 2
Once the amount of the negotiated increase is determined for each specialty, the NBMS FFS Economics Committee, in consultation with each specialty group, goes through an exercise of setting priorities for each individual section by identifying fee codes that will be increased.

Approval of Fee Distribution
The Department of Health and the NBMS Board must approve the final Fee Distribution document. Once approved by both parties, the Fee Distribution is implemented by the Department of Health with the assistance of the NBMS, which includes updating of the New Brunswick Medicare Fee Schedule and the electronic billing system.

2018-2020 Distribution Changes
For information on the 2018-2020 Distribution changes, click here.

2016-2018 Distribution Changes
For information on the 2016-2018 Distribution changes, click here.