Family physicians (including those who work as hospitalists, within a Primary Maternity Care service, within hourly and sessional arrangements and emergency departments), regional and community specialists who serve as preceptors or assessors to medical trainees may qualify for three streams of funding.

Medical trainees are defined as:

• undergraduate medical students registered with Dalhousie Medical School (DMS)
• residents in an accredited postgraduate specialty or subspecialty training program registered with DMS
• other practice-ready providers who are not part of the Physician Assessment Centre of Excellence (PACE)
• physician assistants (while still in training during their two-year program)

A medical trainee is not a:

• clinical observer
• clinical fellow
• PACE participants
• physician extenders, such as associate physicians, and their learners
• other healthcare providers, and their learners

Daily stipend when precepting
Effective Jan. 1, 2026, physicians can submit claims in either half- or full-day increments using the PREC 1, PREC 2 or PREC 3 fee codes and be remunerated according to the number and level of learners they are precepting. Physicians who provide tutoring/lecturing services are still paid for that work by Dalhousie. Learn more here.

5% preceptor premium
Supervising physicians (preceptors and assessors) can claim a premium of 5% on all Nova Scotia Medical Services Insurance (MSI) claims for insured services provided by the supervising physician, the medical trainee or both – as long as both are present in person and working in the same clinical location. This is available to physicians who hold an academic appointment at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine and have been approved by Dalhousie Medical School to supervise a medical trainee. See the March 19, 2021, MSI bulletin (page 5)

When a longitudinal family medicine payment model (LFM) supervising physician submits an eligible claim under their LFM 30% BA with the 5% preceptor premium, the bi-weekly payment deposit will contain payment for the 30% LFM BA as well as any eligible claims where the 5% preceptor premium field was selected. For clarity, LFM supervising physicians will receive a total payment of 35% of eligible claims, and the 5% preceptor premium will appear as a separate payment on the detailed statement.

$5,000 annual preceptor stipend

All physicians who are approved by Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine and the DHW to precept and who spend more than nine days (or 18 half days) between April 1 and March 31 of the following year working directly with learners are eligible to receive the $5,000 annual stipend.

The physician must:

• be paid by fee-for-service, longitudinal family medicine payment model, sessional/hourly; (physicians paid through a Clinical/Academic Funding Plan or outside of the 2023 Physician Agreement are not eligible for this incentive);
• be approved by Dalhousie University and the Department of Health and Wellness to precept; and
• been a preceptor between April 1 and March 31 for an eligible learner (as defined in section 5.2.7 of the preamble to the Physicians’ Manual) for at least nine days or 18 half days. 

Learn more in the FAQ

Precepting and LFM service encounters

There is a temporary waiver of the 2.8 SER for supervising LFM physicians only during periods when they have an eligible medical trainee. To qualify, physicians must bill the 5% premium on all applicable services as well as bill PREC 1, PREC 2 or PREC 3 codes for the appropriate medical trainees to their 100% FFS BA number.