Alberta removing cap on how many patients docs get paid to see in a day

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping said Monday the province is set to temporarily remove a cap that limits the number of patients doctors can be fully paid to see on a given day. The cap, such as it stands, was initially intended to be a cost-saving measure for the province, and a burnout prevention tool for doctors. It was introduced as part of the Physician Funding Framework in 2020. With the cap, physicians can only be paid in-full to see 50 patients per day, after which they are paid half until they hit 65 patients, after which they aren't paid any more at all. One physician in Northeast Calgary, Dr. Omid Pour-Ahmadi described to CBC News how patients line-up early to get seen by a doctor at the SantiMed Family and Walk-In Clinic. Indeed, on Monday, the clinic closed its doors at 2:00 p.m. because all its doctors had seen the number of patients they could be paid to see. "When you ask physicians to open extra hours, and they've already hit their caps during their daytime hours . . . we're not Florence Nightingale," Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Fredrykka Rinaldi told CBC News. More specifically, the cap applies to "all physician services that are defined in the Schedule of Medical Benefits (SOMB) as “visits” with a “V” category code that physicians provide to patients in person, including physician office visits, consultations and counselling services. Procedures and tests that physicians provide are not billed as visits," a government release noted. Notably, docs working in rural and remote areas, hospital visits and virtual care are exempt from the cap. “We’re moving forward to implement the new agreement, starting with ending the daily visit services cap policy and working to put rate increases in place," Copping said in a release. "We’ve heard from some physicians that the daily visit cap was having a negative impact on patient access, so this change addresses those concerns. It is also part of the new agreement with the [Alberta Medical Association] where we are listening to physicians and working with them as partners moving forward.” Alberta Health is currently working to update the SOMB to put the removal of the cap into effect, with a forthcoming Medical Bulletin set to provide more details for physicians. The cap will stay removed until March 2023, at which point the province will review the impact of the change.

Alberta removing cap on how many patients docs get paid to see in a day

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