Switching is a designee change, not a re-registration. Your OHIP billing number, GO Secure account, EDT enrolment and the bank account the ministry deposits into all stay exactly as they are. You add the new provider as an MCEDT designee, run both until outstanding claims have settled, export your history from the old provider, and then remove their designation.
IntelAGENT imports your roster and sets up the designation with you, and the overlap month costs nothing on our side. See how →
The fear that stops most physicians switching is that claims will fall into a gap — submitted by nobody, reconciled by nobody, and discovered months later when they stale-date. That is a real risk, and it is entirely avoidable by overlapping rather than cutting over.
What stays with the ministry
- Your billing number. It is yours, issued to you personally.
- Your GO Secure account and EDT enrolment. Also yours. The provider never had them.
- Your banking details. The EFT destination is registered with the ministry, not with your software.
- Group memberships. Registered against your billing number, arranged with the group.
- Claims already submitted. Once they are with the ministry, they are with the ministry. Switching software does not withdraw them.
What actually moves
- The MCEDT designation. One screen in your own MCEDT profile.
- Your patient roster. Names, health numbers, version codes, dates of birth. Worth moving because re-validating a few hundred cards is the alternative.
- Your billing history. Only if you export it. See below.
- Your defaults. Favourite codes, facilities, group numbers, referring physicians. Small, but it is the difference between the first week feeling familiar and feeling like starting over.
The sequence that avoids a gap
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Set up the new provider first, and add them as a designee
You can have more than one designee at a time. Adding the new one changes nothing about the old one.
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Pick a date and stop entering new claims in the old system
Early in the month is best — just after a Remittance Advice has been released and reconciled, with the longest possible run before the next cut-off on the 18th.
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Let the old system finish what it started
Claims it submitted will be adjudicated on the normal cycle, and the remittance comes back to your MCEDT account. Do not remove the old designation while anything is still in flight — rejections from those claims still need working, and the people best placed to work them are the people who sent them.
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Export everything before you cancel
Patient list, submitted claims, remittance history. Ask for a format you can open without their software. Do this while your account is still active; access usually ends when billing does.
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Reconcile one full cycle on the new provider before removing the old designation
One complete month — submit, rejections back, Remittance Advice reconciled — proves the new path works end to end.
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Remove the old designee
From your own MCEDT profile, the same place you added the new one.
The overlap is the whole point. A hard cut-over on the 17th of a month, with a batch half-submitted and rejections still outstanding, is how claims get lost. Nothing about running two designations for a few weeks costs you anything with the ministry.
What to ask the new provider before you commit
- Will you import my patient roster, and in what format? A list of health numbers and version codes should be enough. If they want a proprietary export from your current provider, that is a red flag about getting out of the new one later.
- Can you import my historical claims? Some can, from Remittance Advice files. It matters if you want continuity in your reporting.
- What happens to my data if I leave? Ask now, while you have leverage. A provider who will not answer this is answering it.
- Is the fee on paid or submitted claims, and is it capped? See what OHIP billing software costs.
- Who works my rejections during the overlap? The answer should be explicit, not assumed.
If you bill under a group
Group billing adds one more moving part: the group number has to be configured on the new provider, and the group's administrator may need to confirm your membership. Group remittances also have to be split back to the rendering physician, and the split has to be consistent across the switch or your year-to-date figures will not add up.
Do the switch at a point where the group's own reporting cycle is quiet, and keep one month of overlap in the group's figures so the two sides can be compared.
Switching to IntelAGENT
The risk in switching is the overlap month, when claims can fall between two systems. That is the month we plan around.
Onboarding sets up the MCEDT designation with you and imports your patient roster. The first three months are free, which means the overlap period costs you nothing on our side — you can run both until a full cycle has settled before removing your previous designee.
Historical claims can be reconstructed from your Remittance Advice files where you have them, which gives you continuous reporting rather than a hard line at the switch date. Self-service pricing is 0.25% of paid claims capped at $39.99 a month; see pricing.
Three months free, then 0.25% of paid claims, capped at $39.99 a month. IntelAGENT has submitted OHIP claims since 2016 for more than 2,000 Ontario physicians.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to re-register with the ministry to switch billing software?
No. Your billing number, GO Secure account and EDT enrolment are yours and stay as they are. Switching means changing which designee is authorised to submit on your behalf — adding the new provider, and removing the old one once nothing is outstanding.
What happens to claims already submitted by my old provider?
They remain submitted. The ministry adjudicates them normally and the remittance for them comes back to your MCEDT account, not to the provider's. The practical question is who reconciles them, which is why you keep the old designation live until everything outstanding has settled.
When in the month should I switch billing software?
Early in the month, just after a Remittance Advice has been released and reconciled. That gives you the longest possible run before the next cut-off on the 18th, and it means you are switching at the point where the fewest claims are in flight.
Will I lose my billing history if I switch?
Your claim history with the old provider stays with them unless you export it first, so export before you cancel. What the ministry holds is separate and unaffected. Most providers will export patient lists and submitted-claim history on request; ask for it in a format you can read without their software.