Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
Three men forced their way into a surgical area and stole $1.2 million worth of medical equipment from Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto police allege.Police said the break and enter happened at the downtown hospital on Bathurst Street around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Source: $1.2 million of medical equipment stolen from Toronto Western Hospital – Toronto – CBC News
Canadians forced to pay some of the highest drug prices in the world could save billions through changes promised by Health Minister Jane Philpott in an exclusive interview with the fifth estate.An analysis by the fifth estate shows that Canadians, for example, pay far more than people in New Zealand for drugs produced by the largest Canadian-owned pharmaceutical company.For every dollar Canadians spend on seven popular drugs sold by Apotex in both countries, Kiwis spend just 11.5 cents.
Source: Health minister vows to save Canadians ‘billions’ on drug prices – Health – CBC News
Canada wasted $15 billion over the last five years on highly priced prescription drugs, in part because of questionable drug company sales tactics, according to exclusive research and a hidden camera investigation by the fifth estate.
The research conducted for the fifth estate by health benefits company Express Scripts Canada shows employer-funded private insurance plans in Canada wasted more than $3 billion per year between 2011 and 2015 by covering the cost of expensive drugs that have cheaper options, as well as paying for unnecessary dispensing fees.
Source: Billions wasted on drug spending in Canada, research shows CBC
The province’s 12 top-billing doctors — who received payments of between $2 million and $7 million in one year — are overcharging the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, documents obtained by the Star suggest.
A Health Ministry audit into their billing practices uncovered significant “concerns” about their claims to the taxpayer-funded plan.
According to the documents, six allegedly charged for “services not rendered,” five “upcoded” or billed OHIP using fee codes for more expensive procedures, and three charged for “medically unnecessary” services, which the plan is not designed to fund, the probe found.
Source: Ontario’s top-billing doctors overcharged OHIP, Health Ministry audit suggests | Toronto Star
It’s the only way for patients to seek justice when they’ve been harmed by health-care error, but Canada’s medical-malpractice system is itself rife with controversy.
Patients complain of a scorched-earth defence approach by doctors, the number of lawsuits filed has been shrinking and the costs for governments that subsidize physicians’ liability coverage have been rising sharply.
A respected former judge, however, is about to shake up the system, putting the final touches on a largely unheralded, government-commissioned report with the potential to transform what happens when doctors get sued.
Source: Suing your doctor: Contentious malpractice system in for shakeup as judge’s review nears end NATIONAL POST
Ontario would reduce fees paid to doctors who bill over $1 million a year as part of a new offer to the province’s medical association.
The government’s proposed three-year plan to the Ontario Medical Association — whose members rejected a government contract offer last summer — takes a Robin Hood approach, trimming payout to some doctors and for some procedures that can be conducted faster with new technologies to give lower-paid family doctors an extra $185 million a year.
Source: Ontario to reduce fees to doctors billing more than $1M a year | Toronto Star
Physician groups have been lobbying aggressively to have federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau quash a government plan to tighten up the rules that some corporations use to reduce or defer their taxes. Some specialist groups, such as radiologists, have gone so far as to claim that thousands of doctors will flee the country if the tax break is not maintained.
There are two distinct issues here: First, is the tax loophole that doctors want to keep justified? And, second, how should the government deal with the threats?
Source: Some doctors have tax complaint – but they’re off-base GLOBE AND MAIL
TORONTO – I see the symptoms of what ails our health system all the time.
Two years ago, it was Madi Vanstone, the then-12 year-old who suffers from cystic fibrosis and had to fight for her life against an uncaring health bureaucracy that refused to fund her life-saving drugs.
Source: Bloated bureaucracy ails our health care TORONTO SUN
Months after Melissa Sheldrick’s eight-year-old son Andrew died from ingesting a prescription issued in error, the Mississauga, Ont., mother is on a mission to have mandatory medication reporting systems instituted across Canada.“We can’t undo what has happened. We know that and we have come to accept that as a family. However, putting another family through this is not acceptable,” Sheldrick told Global News.
Canadians who need medically necessary surgeries waited longer than ever for treatment — with average wait times hitting 20 weeks, a new Fraser Institute report concludes.Before the 20-week record in 2016, wait times were longest in 2011 at 19 weeks, according to the organization. It began recording wait times for medically necessary elective treatments in 1993. At that point, wait times were only about 9.3 weeks to see a specialist, such as an ophthalmologist, gynecologist, and general surgeons.
Source: Q & A: How long are medical wait times in Canada by province and procedure? | Globalnews.ca