FHO+ rules

Check eligibility

Use the patient, service, physician, and location as the starting point before you choose an hourly code.

Quick answer: The hourly rate applies to insured work personally performed by an eligible FHO physician for rostered patients of the FHO group. The fact that time is available in the app does not make the work eligible.

Last reviewed September 9, 2026

Ask five questions

Was the work personally performed by the physician who will submit the hourly claim?
Was it for an insured service involving a rostered patient or an eligible FHO panel activity?
Did it happen in a setting covered by the FHO+ guidance?
Does the category describe the work accurately?
Is the time within the daily, monthly, and support-time limits?

Who can bill

FHO signatory physicians may submit the hourly codes with the FHO group number or their solo billing number.
Registered FHO locums may bill eligible hourly time with their solo billing number and the FHO group number. Payment goes to the group account during the first year.
FHO income-stabilization physicians are not eligible to bill the hourly codes.
Time worked by nurses, staff, learners without the physician's direct supervision, or other delegates is not the physician's billable time.

What can qualify

Insured care personally provided to rostered patients, including eligible care for rostered patients in long-term care.
Direct and indirect work related to those services.
Eligible panel management, quality improvement, and EMR work that meets the clinical-administration guidance.
The hourly payment in addition to applicable shadow billing, fee-for-service claims, premiums, and special payments. Continue the billing required for the underlying service.

What does not qualify

Care for non-rostered patients and uninsured services.
Work performed by another team member.
Emergency-department, in-hospital, anesthesia, surgical-assist, and independent-health-facility work outside the eligible family-practice setting.
Travel time for home visits.
Ordinary clinic business administration or time spent tallying and documenting the hourly claims themselves.

Important notes

Eligibility can turn on the patient, service, location, physician status, and contract terms. Verify edge cases before claiming.

Sources

Browse all FHO+ Billing guides

Introduction — Use this help center to understand the app, the FHO+ hourly categories, and the checks to make before billing.
Start here — Set up the app once, record the day while it is fresh, and review the month before you prepare claims.
Log a day — Enter the time you worked for one service date and keep the four categories separate.
Read your billing snapshot — Understand the room calculations and prompts that change as you edit a day.
Use the time tools — Measure one work block or total several blocks before applying the result to Today.
Review a month — Use Calendar to find blank days, correct records, and check the month before claim preparation.
Create presets and weekday rules — Reduce repeated entry while keeping the saved record tied to what actually happened.
Export records and prepare claims — Create a readable date-range report and a code-by-code summary for your normal billing workflow.
Manage local data, sync, and backups — Know where your records live before you change browsers, devices, or accounts.
Use FHO+ Billing across devices — Set up FHO+ Billing on web and iPhone with the same account, then check whether your preferences and saved billing records have synced.
Review FHO+ billing records before export — A practical review checklist for Ontario FHO+ physicians using FHO+ Billing to check service dates, categories, limits, saved entries, and reports.
FHO+ billing terms for Ontario physicians — A plain-language glossary of FHO+, hourly-rate categories, Q-codes, rostered patients, billing units, and continuity terminology used in Ontario physician guidance.
If the numbers look wrong — A short diagnostic checklist for totals, room calculations, missing days, and saved data.
Check eligibility — Use the patient, service, physician, and location as the starting point before you choose an hourly code.
Choose a fee code — Keep the four hourly categories consistent in Today, reports, and billing software.
Indirect care vs clinical administration — Separate the two support categories that are easiest to confuse.
Rates, units, and rounding — Convert the time in each category into claim units and the correct base value.
Daily and monthly caps — Check the shared daily maximum and the prorated monthly maximum before submitting a large day or month.
Support-time ratios — Keep indirect care and clinical administration within the two monthly ratios.
Document a claimed day — Keep the daily totals and activity summaries needed to support hourly claims.
Prepare and check a claim — Move from the app's saved records to your normal OHIP billing process without missing the claim details.
Virtual care and other settings — Use location and service type to place virtual care, home visits, and long-term-care work in the right category.
Learners and locums — Apply the hourly guidance when teaching during care or covering an FHO practice as a locum.
Fix common mistakes — Run this checklist before you send a large claim or finish the month.
What changed on April 1, 2026 — A short guide to the FHO+ changes that sit beside the hourly-rate program.
Continuity and outside use — Understand the continuity measure without confusing it with hourly time tracking.
Official sources and dates — Go to the documents that govern or explain FHO+ billing when a rule is unclear.