CVM Employee/Student/Affiliate Accounts Policy

Implementation Date: 05/2021

Date of Last Revision: N/A

Next Review Due: 05/2023

Reviewed by VTH Administrative Team: 06/27/2019

Reviewed by VTH Board: N/A

Reviewed by Legal Counsel: N/A

VTH Director Approval: N/A

Subject to modification by the VTH Director without approval.

Policy

College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) employees, students, and/or affiliates are entitled to certain benefits associated with personally owned animals and Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) services. These benefits are restricted by University and State of Illinois requirements as outlined in this policy.

Guidelines

Periodic Record audits will be performed on CVM employee, student and affiliate-owned accounts.

Violations of VTH policies will be reported to the VTH Director’s office, will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, and may result in disciplinary action.

Procedure (if applicable)

Patient Registration and Services

• CVM employee, student, and/or affiliate-owned animals must be registered when presented to the VTH in accordance with the ptHand903 Animal Registration Policy
• Only animals owned by, and residing with the employee, student, and/or affiliate are eligible for the discounted rate on services in accordance with the policy Bill312 Professional Discount Policy.
• The employee, student, and/or affiliate are responsible for indicating their CVM affiliation at the time of patient registration.
  • Discounted fees are not retroactive.
• An appropriate new patient fee will be applied to the account when the record is created in accordance with the MR202 Record Creation & Fees policy.
• All CVM employees, students, and/or affiliates are expected to provide payment at the time of service in accordance with the policy Bill319 Payment Due at Time of Service.
  • Any unpaid balances of non-state of Illinois employees will be sent to the University’s General Accounts Receivables, then 3rd party (external) collections after 90 days if needed.
  • Any unpaid balances of state of Illinois employees will be subject to involuntary payroll deduction as mandated by the State comptroller Act [15 UKCS 405/10.05 and 405/1005a]
• All University of Illinois employees are ineligible to receive financial assistance per the Bill322 Client Funding Requests policy.
• All patient visits must be under the care of a supervising clinician and the clinician assumes responsibility for the patient visit record. CVM Employee/Student/Affiliate Accounts Category: Patient Handling VTH Policy # Bill325
• For auditing purposes, an employee/student/affiliate of the VTH should avoid accessing their own account and family member’s accounts.
  • If applicable, the personnel may participate in the care of their own animal but will defer charge entry to someone other than themselves.
• All charges applicable to the patient visit must be entered as for any non-CVM employee, student, or affiliate-owned animal. Discretionary adjustments may be applied to offset the amount due when appropriate.

Filling Prescriptions

• An established veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) and active patient medical record (visit within a previous calendar year) in the VTH Health Information System (HIS) is required for a CVM employee, student, and/or affiliate to purchase drugs or supplies from the VTH.
• If a prescription is obtained from the VTH Medication Dispensary, or a medication is prescribed to an outside pharmacy by a clinician utilizing a license or DEA number associated with the VTH address, the patient must have had a VTH visit within the last calendar year, with a documented visit and visit report within the Health Information System.
  • If an exam has not been documented on the patient record in the last year, the record must show an exam to establish a VCPR prior to filling meds through the VTH Medication Dispensary. The “General Internal Annual Exam ”(GSIE procedure code in VetStar) fee will be assessed on the client account to fill medications. This fee and the corresponding exam findings documentation by the VTH doctor will serve to establish a VCPR which is valid for one year.
• Veterinarians may enter, and pin, non-controlled drug prescriptions for their own animals, if the above parameters are met. However, veterinarians may not fill medications for their own animals.
• Non-veterinarians may not enter, pin, or fill drug prescriptions for their own animals, and will require a VTH clinician to enter the prescription information.
• No person may enter, pin, or fill prescriptions for controlled substances for their own animal.

CVM Employee Boarding Program

• Animals enrolled in the CVM Employee Boarding Program must be preapproved and will follow VTH Policy Misc802 VTH Employee Boarding Program (EBP).
• Animals actively enrolled do not need to be registered in the HIS when in the VTH

Definitions (if applicable)

Affiliate: For the purposes of this policy, any person legally affiliated with or related to a CVM employee or student with whom they co-own the animal.

Current Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR): An established relationship between the veterinarian and patient no more than 12 months prior. See the link below for the full definition as it relates to VCPR: https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/veterinarian-client-patient-relationship-vcpr

Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) – The collective clinical services of the Large Animal Clinic, Midwest Equine, the Small Animal Clinic, and the Veterinary Medicine South Clinic.