By Sheldon Spackman

speaking up

Doctors to voice concerns over healthcare changes at Innisfail forum

Mar 10, 2020 | 5:52 PM

An Innisfail doctor is cautiously optimistic, but still skeptical regarding the government’s willingness to listen to physician concerns over the province’s health care plans laid out in Budget 2020.

Dr. Jesse Christiansen, Family Physician at the Innisfail Medical Clinic, says he and many of his colleagues are concerned about current negotiations between the province and Alberta Medical Association (AMA), and the way that the government has implemented its changes.

“Bill 21, which was passed last year, gives the Alberta government the ability to terminate contracts at any time without cause with the Alberta Medical Association, and that’s going to give them the ability to do that indefinitely into the future,” he explains. “Although the AMA is sitting down with the government right now, I haven’t heard any indication that they’re thinking of removing that Bill that gives them the ability to opt-out of contracts with the Alberta Medical Association at any time.”

Central Albertans are invited to learn more about the concerns of doctors and current negotiations with the province at a forum taking place Wednesday, March 11, 7:00 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion in Innisfail.

Dr. Christiansen says if one party has the ability to go back on a contract any time they want, it leaves the other party doubting that negotiations are being done in good faith.

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“That’s one of our biggest concerns right now, is that Bill 21 is still in place,” he exclaims. “You kind of have to wonder why, that the government would leave that in place if they’re negotiating in good faith with the Alberta Medical Association?”

Last month, the Alberta government ended an agreement with the province’s doctors and announced it was implementing a series of changes aimed at reducing costs in the health care system. Those changes are slated to take effect Apr. 1.

With respect to the government’s proposed changes outlined in Budget 2020, Christiansen says of big concern for family doctors, especially those in rural areas, is the removal of a time modifier code that would allow physicians to be able to bill for spending more time with their patients.

“Obviously with more complicated patients that have significant medical issues going on, it can take more than 10 minutes to sort through all the issues that the patient has,” he explains. “It has been shown in multiple studies that by spending more time with the patients, the physicians will avoid the patients needing to go into the emergency room, avoid needing them to go into the hospital, and actually ends up saving the system money and the patients get better care at the same time.”

Christiansen suggests the government did not do enough consultation with doctors before reaching a new course of action moving forward.

“I think any family doctor who had been talked to about that decision would have been able to tell them immediately that they had very significant concerns about the implementation of that change,” he points out.

However, Dr. Christiansen acknowledges the fiscally-challenged position the government finds itself in.

“We are certainly willing to accept cuts to some of the billing that we do,” he concedes. “The AMA during the negotiations with the provincial government had offered to take three per cent cuts across the board, so we are certainly open to negotiations, but not in a unilaterally fashion, and certainly not cuts that would impair our ability to take care of our patients properly.”

Christiansen says if the province is looking to maintain health care services but reduce the cost of providing them, he feels many of the proposed changes they are planning, will do the opposite.

“If we were consulted, we could certainly think up some ways fairly quickly that money is being used in the system that maybe isn’t giving us as much benefit for the expense,” notes Christiansen. “But certainly the time modifier code that they’re removing from family physicians would not be at the top pf my list, it would be near the bottom.”