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Toronto
Star - October 19, 1998
New
Rates for GPs Criticised
'Healthy' patient would
earn Ontario doctors $70 a year
By WENDY MCCANN
CANADIAN PRESS
Doctors
testing a new system of family medicine In Ontario will be
paid as little as $70.29 a year to treat some patients, 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
But
in another new twist, there will be annual cash bonuses of
up to $8,800 for doctors who encourage patients to get flu
vaccines, Pap smears, mammographies and childhood immunisation
shots.
And
doctors will get $100 an hour to go back to school and almost
as much for consultations with other physicians.
Already,
the compensation package, detailed In a draft government document
obtained by The Canadian Press, is being criticised by an
organization that represents about one-third of the province's
family doctors. And it's creating confusion among patients
who fear if doctors are paid as little as $70.29 a year to
care for them, It will place limits on services they have
grown used to getting from their GPs.
"It's
an insult to the people of Ontario to have the government
state that their life is worth as little as $70.29 for a year,"
says Dr. Sharla Lichtman, a spokesperson for the 3,000-member
Coalition of Family Physicians of Ontario.
"Do
they think their lives can be properly taken care of by a
professional for that much? When you have to call in
a plumber, can you pay them less than $70 for an hour?"
Under
the new rules, patients will he asked to sign contracts tying
them to a particular physician or practice.
Patients
will have round-the-clock physician care and there use of
the health-cane system will he tracked by computers.
Under
one new compensation proposal, doctors would be paid a set
amount for patients depending on how much care they are likely
to require.
For
example, a doctor would get an average of $70.29 a year for
every young male patient between 25 an 35. Men that age tend
to be healthy and make few trips to the doctor.
'When you have
to call in a plumber, can you pay them less than $70.00?'
However,
an elderly woman who may suffer from diabetes,Parkinson's
disease and be at risk of pneumonia will require more care.
Signing on with a particular doctor would be worth about $331
a year to that physician.
Dr.
Wendy Graham, a key architect of Ontario's new system, says
some patients are concerned that a limit on payments means
a cap on services.
"The
public is under the impression that once they've used up their
$70.29, that there's no more money available for them for
health care," she says. "That's a misunderstanding."
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