By Gates Guarin

Alberta government provides update on physician agreement

Nov 21, 2022 | 4:29 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The provincial government has provided an update to the physician’s agreement which was ratified back in September.

Health Minister Jason Copping and Dr. Fredrykka Rinaldi, Alberta Medical Association, president and Medicine Hat physician, outlined two areas of the agreement which the government will be going forward with immediately: the removal of a daily cap on visits a physician can fully bill, and a one per cent recognition lump sum payment. The removal of the cap now allows physicians to be fully compensated for every visit rather than receiving a discounted rate if they provided more than 50 visit services in a single day.

Currently, physicians are compensated 100 per cent up to 50 service billings a day which drops to 50 per cent between 51 and 65 visit services, and then no compensation for billings exceeding 66 visits.

READ MORE: Physicians sign new agreement with Alberta government

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Dr. Rinaldi says moving forward with this step will allow more stability in a physician’s practice, and allow doctors to provide quality of care without having to worry about if their work will be discounted.

“Provisional removal of the daily service caps will allow physicians to care for more patients where the cap had prevented them from doing so,” Rinaldi says. “This will improve access to care for patients and appropriate access to the appropriate place.”

The recognition lump sum payment will be a one-time payment totalling $45 million. Copping says the funds will go directly to the AMA for distribution to its members by the end of the calendar year.