The Alberta government wants to cut more than $400 million in the fees it pays to doctors, according to a confidential memo obtained by The Canadian Press.
The Feb. 18 memo, sent by Alberta Medical Association head Dr. Shelley Duggan to member physicians, says Alberta’s health ministry seeks cuts to more than 800 physician billing codes to save $400 million because of budget pressures.
Those codes lay out how much money is paid for specific procedures, sometimes based on the amount of time that a doctor spends with a patient.
“What has become clear in the last few months is that Alberta Health is looking to address its budget shortfalls through the physician services budget,” Duggan writes.
“While we hope Alberta Health will reconsider its current approach, we wanted to advise members that it’s highly likely the [issue] will proceed to arbitration.”
Duggan says the government move breaks an agreement to jointly review the billing changes because the province has not left enough time for a proper evaluation before a March 31 deadline.
Such contempt for public healthcare. I’d love to see a Canada healthcare community on Lemmy because things like this - and other steps Conservative governments take towards healthcare privatization - are social issues affecting all Canadians, not just professional issues affecting certain professions. Focusing the discussion may help people connect the dots; after all, Ontarians said healthcare was the most important election issue, and then they proceeded to re-elect Drug Fraud, who has stolen and gutted as much as he can from public healthcare
