“Our doctors are the best paid in Canada,” Health Minister Deb Matthews said. “Instead of another raise for doctors, we need a real wage freeze so we can invest in more home care.”
The government will introduce regulations that will lower the fees for cataract surgery and diagnostic radiology tests. As well, doctors will perform fewer ultrasounds and echocardiograms before routine non-cardiac surgery.
Ms. Matthews unveiled the new fee schedule for the provinces 25,000 doctors at a news conference on Monday morning.
“With today’s announcement, I’m choosing expanded home care over higher doctors’ pay,” Ms. Matthews told reporters. “I’m choosing seniors over specialists. I’m choosing patients over pay raises.”
She said she is changing the fees to better reflect modern practices, in which technology is making it possible to perform many procedures much faster.
Doug Weir, a child psychiatrist who was elected president of the Ontario Medical Association on the weekend, accused the government of turning its back on the province’s doctors. Describing the government’s action as an “appalling step,” he said retroactively imposing cuts to some OHIP fees will hurt patient care and impair the province’s ability to recruit and retain doctors.
“Finally we learn the truth from the government: Protecting patient care means eliminating and cutting fees; a wage freeze means dramatic cuts to fees and programs,” Dr. Weir said in a statement. “And negotiating fairly means walking away from the table and imposing cuts.”
The changes will be retroactively imposed as of April 1 and are expected to produce savings of $338-million in fiscal 2012-13 alone.
Ms. Matthews announced the changes after the OMA failed to reach an accord with the province by 8 o’clock Sunday evening.
The government asked doctors to freeze their fees for two years to help the province reduce its deficit. However, the OMA asserted that freezing overall funding at $11-billion would in fact result in a pay cut because of growing patient volumes and more doctors entering the system.
Under the new regulations, the province is cutting fees paid for diagnostic radiology tests by 11 per cent over four years. Fees paid for cataract surgery will drop to $397.75 from $441. The fee for eye injections for retinal diseases will be slashed in half to $80.
The government is also cutting by half payments for X-rays and ultrasounds when doctors refer their own patients for such diagnostic tests. The province currently spends $88-million on such self referrals.
Ms. Matthews said the OMA was asking for an increase in doctors’ compensation of $700-million over two years.
In a letter to OMA president Stewart Kennedy last Friday, Ms. Matthews said she was willing to negotiate through the weekend but “we must insist on a deadline of Sunday, May 6 at 8 p.m. to reach an agreement.”