The debt-ridden Ontario Government is pushing forward with urgent plans to control the cost of OHIP. Friday morning the health minister, Dr. Hoskins, released eye-popping figures which show that 500 doctors on the province bill more than a $ million in fees each and that one, a ophthalmologist, took home $6.6 million. The names of all doctors are being kept confidential .The 500 doctors represent just two per cent of all practitioners but cost $677 million a year, or nearly 10 per cent of Ontario’s Fee-For-Service budget. And many of them charge much more than $1 million, the government’ reports.
DUELLING NEWS RELEASES
The information appears to be part of a war of media releases between the Ontario Medical Association and Queen’s Park. The OMA says the province’s efforts to limit certain types of doctors’ fees is hurting patient care. It’s not family doctors and their practices that Health Minister Eric Hoskins wants to see reduced, but the most costly specialists. Many patients will know that over the past few years specialists in particular have had to change the frequency with they perform certain procedures, especially preventive. Among these is cataract removal, which has become less expensive to perform because of technology. “Of the top five billers in the province, two are ophthalmologists, two are radiologists and one is an anesthesiologist,” a government fact-sheet states. “The top biller, an ophthalmologist, billed more than $6.6 million last year. The top diagnostic radiologist billed more than $5.1 million and the top anesthesiologist billed more than $3.8 million. The average doctor’s gross payment is $368,000 a year.