Veterans Affairs Canada and the Interim Federal Health Program.
Two federal programmes that pay for equipment, each with its own published rules about who may supply it, what may be claimed and what the client still owes. This page is about what each one does to your invoice.
Veterans Affairs Canada
Program of Choice 9, and how a provider is paid.
The department groups its treatment benefits into programs of choice. Program of Choice 9 is the oxygen therapy and respiratory one. Every entry is sourced and dated at the foot of this page.
The Interim Federal Health Program
Temporary federal coverage, with a co-payment.
Coverage that runs until a person is eligible for provincial or territorial insurance, with a share the client pays you directly.
On the invoice
A federal share and what is left.
Raise the invoice at your price, add the programme with its rule, and the remainder is the client's.
A percentage of the eligible cost
A coverage rule can be a percentage of the invoice total or of a named base, set once on the payer and applied to every invoice that carries it.
- Per whole invoice, or per line where only some lines are eligible.
- The client's co-payment is the remainder, worked out rather than typed.
- The shares on one invoice can never add up to more than the invoice total.
A rate the programme sets
Where a programme pays a set figure for an item, the payer share is a fixed amount instead.
- The reference the programme gives you is captured on that payer's share.
- The share can be billed as its own numbered invoice, so payer debt ages apart from the client's.
- One remittance covering many clients is applied across many invoices in a single pass.
Sample
Supplemental coverage on medical equipment
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Positive airway pressure system | $720.00 |
| Invoice total | $720.00 |
| Federal programme 70% of the eligible cost | -$504.00 |
| Patient owed | $216.00 |
Sample figures, not a real patient. The client pays the remaining 30% directly to the provider, so it sits on the same invoice as the programme share.
Sample figures, not a real patient. Invoice lines carry no tax unless the catalogue item is taxable, and respiratory supplies are set up zero rated.
In norvelle
What the clinic records.
Both programmes are in the payer directory, and your clinic enters each coverage rule once. From there the record is the same shape as any other payer.
- The approval or claim reference is captured on that payer's share, and the payer can be set to require one before the share goes out.
- The client's co-payment is the remainder after every payer share, and collections chases that figure only.
- The payer's share can be billed as its own numbered invoice, so federal debt ages apart from the client's.
- One remittance is applied across many invoices with its number recorded, and reversed as a whole if it does not clear.
- A refused share is appealed, written off or moved to the client, and an appeal left unanswered for 60 days returns to the client by itself.
- Your team sends the claim. norvelle holds the split, the reference and the money.
How one invoice carries more than one payer at all: funding programmes and payer billing.
Questions vendors ask.
Sources
Captured 2026-10-18. Every programme fact on this page was read from the programme's own published pages and policies on that date. Programme rules change: check the source before you rely on it.
- Program of Choice 9 items, including oxygen concentrators, compressors, oxygen gas, continuous, automatic and bi-level positive airway pressure machines and ventilators; the benefit grids and the tests for an unlisted item; the 18 month limit for submitting a claim; and a client changing provider or paying the difference where a provider charges more than the department may pay: Veterans Affairs Canada, Treatment Benefits Program of Choice (POC) 9 Oxygen Therapy and Respiratory Equipment Policy, document 2097, veterans.gc.ca/en/about-vac/reports-policies-and-legislation/policies/oxygen-therapy-and-respiratory-equipment-poc-9 (effective 2025-03-31).
- Administration by Medavie Blue Cross under contract with the department, claims submitted after the service date, the non-Veteran cash rate ceiling, the maximum allowable cost, payment at the established rate as full and total payment, pre-authorization, the prescription held before supply and its one year validity, the client signature on a paper claim form, the 18 and 12 month payment limits, audits and recovery, and the Health Identification Card: Veterans Affairs Canada, Benefit provisions and payment requirements for treatment benefits, veterans.gc.ca/en/mental-and-physical-health/information-healthcare-service-providers/benefit-provisions-and-payment-requirements-treatment-benefits (effective 2014-07-01, page modified 2024-04-25).
- Limited and temporary coverage until provincial or territorial insurance begins, coverage only from providers registered with the programme, 70% of eligible costs for supplemental benefits with a 30% co-payment paid to the provider, medical supplies and equipment and assistive devices among those benefits, the $4 prescription co-payment, no coverage of services claimable under other insurance and no coordination with other plans, the Canadian Dental Care Plan exception, and administration by Medavie Blue Cross: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Interim Federal Health Program, what is covered, canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/help-within-canada/health-care/interim-federal-health-program/coverage-summary.html (page modified 2026-05-01).
- People eligible for Department of Veterans Affairs Group A benefits are not eligible for Assistive Devices Program coverage: Ontario Disability Support Program directive 9.6, ontario.ca/document/ontario-disability-support-program-policy-directives-income-support/96-assistive-devices (updated 2026-03-10).