For podiatry
Billing and medical-aid claims for podiatry practices
NetPractice submits podiatry claims to South African medical schemes in real time, using the 68-prefixed five-digit tariff codes podiatry actually bills — so a procedure printed as 303 on your schedule goes out as 68303, not 0303. The accepted or rejected outcome comes back in seconds, so a coding rejection is a two-minute fix on the day rather than a surprise at month-end.
The code-form trap
Podiatry bills procedures and materials in the same visit, and they work differently on a claim. The procedure carries a tariff code; an orthotic or a dispensed item carries a NAPPI code. Mixing them up is a common and avoidable rejection.
South African tariff codes come in two billed forms, and which one applies depends on your discipline. Medical specialists bill the bare four-digit code — a GP bills 0190 as 0190. Allied and paramedical disciplines bill their BHF discipline number followed by the three-digit procedure. Podiatry is discipline 68:
| Discipline | BHF number | Billed code form |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational therapy | 66 | 66nnn |
| Podiatry | 68 | 68nnn |
| Physiotherapy | 72 | 72nnn |
| Audiology | 82 | 82nnn |
| Dietetics | 84 | 84nnn |
| Psychology | 86 | 86nnn |
| Nursing and home-based care | 88 | 88nnn |
| Biokinetics | 91 | 91nnn |
This is invisible on a tariff schedule, because the schedule prints the short procedure number and leaves the form to you. It is the most common structural coding error in allied practices, and it does not fail politely: codes come back unknown or priced at zero across the board rather than case by case. If that is what your rejections look like, check the form before you check anything else.
Each scheme’s own tariff schedule is the authority on its rates and codes. Where a scheme’s schedule disagrees with anything here, follow the schedule. Clinical technology is deliberately absent from the table above: its numbering is not consistent between schemes, so no single pattern would be correct.
What a podiatry practice gets
- Procedures and materials on the same claim, each with the right kind of code.
- Orthotics and dispensed items, which are priced from a product code rather than a procedure code.
- Diabetic foot care, where the underlying condition affects how the claim is funded.
- Cash patients, who are a large share of most podiatry practices.
Plus everything every practice gets: real-time claim submission with the scheme’s verdict in seconds, invoices and monthly statements, patients and visits, clinical notes, and reports on aged debtors, daily collections and turnover.
Two things worth reading next if claims are the problem: why medical aid claims get rejected and how to read a remittance advice, which is where short-paid podiatry lines usually show up first.
Podiatry billing questions
How do I bill orthotics and materials as a podiatrist?
A procedure you performed carries a tariff code; a physical item you supplied carries a NAPPI code identifying that specific product. They are different code sets answering different questions, and a scheme prices them separately.
What is the podiatry discipline number?
Podiatry is discipline 68, so the billed tariff code is 68 followed by the three-digit procedure number.
Do podiatry claims need an ICD-10 diagnosis code?
Yes. Every claim to a South African medical scheme needs a valid ICD-10 code, coded to the most specific level the record supports. For an injury the scheme also expects an external-cause code, and that cause code has to be a billable five-character code rather than a category heading.
What does billing software cost for a podiatry practice?
On NetPractice it is R9.50 per claim with the first 10 claims each month free, and no monthly fee or contract. A practice submitting 200 claims a month pays R1,805.
Start with 10 free claims
R9.50 a claim after your first 10 each month, no monthly fee and no contract. Set up within 24 hours.