Cancelling Registration
If at any point in the registration year you are planning to stop practicing OT in Alberta (for example due to retirement, leave of absence, maternity leave, moving to work elsewhere), please let the ACOT office know as soon as possible – even just a short voice message or email is so helpful. Doing so helps avoid a cancellation notice being sent to you and your last known employer if/when you do not renew your registration.
OT and Blue Cross
It was brought to ACOT’s attention that Alberta Blue Cross would only provide reimbursement for mental health services provided by OTs who were approved by ACOT to provide these services (for example through a roster indicating which OTs are able to provide these services, similar to what the Alberta College of Social Workers has). As ACOT does not maintain a mental health/psychosocial interventions roster for OTs, we instead informed Blue Cross of the entry level training OTs receive in this practice area as well as ACOT’s Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics requirements that OTs only provide services they are competent to perform. With this information Blue Cross will now permit OTs to bill for mental health services, provided the billing is specifically for OT services within a client’s available OT service billing room (i.e., mental health services provided by an OT cannot be billed under the psychology billing codes).
For further information about OTs and Blue Cross please visit: https://www.ab.bluecross.ca/providers/occupational-home.php
Note that while it is outside the mandate of ACOT to discuss coverage for OT services with the various insurance providers, in this exceptional circumstance where the provider expected ACOT to maintain a specific roster we were able to clarify that we do not have one for this purpose.