Ontario’s Ministry of Health is doing little to crack down on doctors who improperly bill OHIP, according to information obtained by CBC/Radio-Canada.
A freedom of information request shows the province has recovered only $1.1 million in illegitimate billings over the past two years, while the auditor general pointed in her 2016 report to some $6 million in fees improperly paid to doctors.
“This is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money, taxpayers’ money that was supposed to go to health,” said NDP health critic France Gélinas in an interview with CBC News.
“It is incomprehensible that when the government sees those kinds of mistakes, that they don’t recoup the money,” Gélinas said.
This suggests little has changed since 2016, when Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk criticized the health ministry for inadequately investigating fraudulent billing and for failing to follow up on physicians with a record of charging inappropriate fees to OHIP.
“The ministry lacks effective enforcement mechanisms to recover inappropriate payments from physicians,” Lysyk wrote in her 2016 report. “Unless a physician agrees to repay amounts voluntarily, it is very difficult to recover inappropriate payments.”
Read the full article at CBC News
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