Dr. Ven Tandan, president of the Ontario Medical Association, speaks with the Windsor Star editorial board in Windsor on Thursday, January 22, 2015. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)
Dave Waddell
Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Ved Tandan warned that the provincial government’s imposition of changes to the Physician Services Agreement (PSA) could result in the rationing of services to patients.
The Hamilton-based surgeon is making the rounds of the province to discuss the fallout of the collapse of talks between physicians and the government last week.
“There were multiple things (why we rejected the offer), probably the most significant being the arbitrary cap on the number of medical services that can be delivered in Ontario,” Tandan said Thursday during an editorial board meeting with the Windsor Star.
“They told us the amount that can be provided, based purely on the budget not based on any measure of the health-care needs of the population.
“They want us to ration health care for patients to save money in the budget.”
Tandan said the government would begin clawing back money from the group as a whole once the overall budgeted number was reached.
The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Eric Hoskins took issue with Tandan’s comments.
“There can be no justification for doctors turning away patients or rationing care. And we don’t believe that Ontario’s doctors would let that happen,” Hoskins said in an email to The Star.
There is no cap on the number of patients a doctor could treat. There is no restriction on the amount of services a physician can provide.
Physicians rejected an offer of an increase in their PSA of 1.25 per cent annually in a three-year contract last week.
The third year of the deal also included a one-time payment of $117 million to help alleviate physician’s increased overheard costs.
The government’s offer would have seen the funds designated for physicians increase from $11.29 billion to $11.72 billion by the end of agreement in 2017.
The average doctor bills the province $361,000 per year, but Tandan said 40 per cent of that is consumed by staff salaries and other overhead costs.
Doctors have been without a contract since March 31, 2014.
“Ontario’s doctors are among the highest paid in Canada,” Hoskins said in his email response.
“I remain disappointed that they rejected our offer,” he said. “This is about doctors’ compensation. We are not cutting services.”
Despite no new talks being scheduled, Tandan said there are no plans by doctors to slow down or disrupt the system in anyway. Doctors aren’t allowed to strike.
“The government has decided to fund less than half of the growth (2.7 per cent) they know is required (to meet the demand for services),” Tandan said. “It’s important doctors also understand the financial situation of the province and government. We’re willing to do our part.
“We took a four-per-cent cut in fees in 2012 and we’ve offered to freeze fees for another two years.”
The government claims the previous four per cent cut didn’t achieve the savings expected as doctors treated more patients and filed more billings than anticipated.
As a result, the ministry isn’t budging on its desire for a hard cap in the PSA on total compensation.
The government increased the stakes last week by imposing harsher terms on physicians in an effort to achieve the desired savings of $580 million in the new PSA.
Among the cuts were a 2.56 per cent reduction to OHIP fees, eliminating funding for continuing education, reducing the fee for walk-in clinic patients by a $1.70 to bring it in line with doctors’ regular patients and limiting the number of family doctors in well-serviced areas who can join family health-care teams where physicians are paid by the number of patients rather than on a fee-per-service basis.
The government has also eliminated the premium for doctors to accept healthy new patients.
Tandan said these measures do little to address the underlying issues of 900,000 Ontarians still not having a family doctor and the fact another 140,000 enter the health-care system each year.
“We need more doctors to meet the need for health care,” Tandan said. “It’s not about us as individuals. We’re willing to take a freeze on fees.”
Tandan said Ontario already has the fewest doctors per capita in the country and things will only get worse under these new measures.
He said the OMA has tabled other suggestions aimed at saving the system money and supports conserving funds where it doesn’t impact care.
One such proposal would see the elimination of pre-operative consults and assessments for low-risk surgery. The OMA expects the Schedule of Benefits to be revised to reflect those standards after an evaluation is done.
dwaddell@windsorstar.com
Source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/medical-association-president-claims-funding-cap-will-lead-to-rationed-care
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments.
Canadian Insurance News does not endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that we have the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever.