Ontario Medical Association Archives

Big Pharma marketing scheme banned by Ontario

September 14, 2017

Ontario is banning a new Big Pharma marketing scheme that uses electronic medical records to sell drugs.

The prohibition comes after a Star investigation found Telus Health has been inserting electronic vouchers for brand name drugs into its popular medical record software (EMR) used by thousands of doctors across Canada.

“Ontario patients must have confidence that (prescribing) decisions are not influenced by marketing programs or electronic vouchers,” Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins said in a statement.

How Ontario doctors messed up on secret pay: Hepburn

August 16, 2017

The Ontario Medical Association, which represents 29,000 doctors, may be the most dysfunctional professional group in the entire province, if not all of Canada.

Since January, the powerful OMA has been torn apart by vicious infighting that saw the sudden resignation of its entire executive team, a nasty campaign of cyberbullying pitting doctors against doctors, the election of a slate of dissident doctors to lead the association, and the resignation of nine hardline members of its governing council who claimed the OMA still muzzles dissenting voices.

Doctors propose plan to reveal top OHIP billers

August 15, 2017

Ontario patients may soon learn how much some of the province’s highest billing doctors receive in taxpayer-funded OHIP payments.

If the Ontario Medical Association follows through on a proposal from some of its members, it would assist in publicly releasing the names of some top-billers, a move that would mark a dramatic reversal in its position that such disclosure would be a violation of personal privacy.

Doctors have been discussing the plan for more than a week on a social media site, the Star has learned.

Ontario doctors plan to appeal court decision to identify top-billers

July 6, 2017

The Ontario Medical Association has announced that it wants to appeal a court ruling that would make the names of the province’s top-billing doctors public.

In an email sent to 29,000 members Thursday, the organization said it wants to ask the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn a lower court ruling that would allow public disclosure of the names.

The OMA continues to maintain that physicians’ identities should be exempt from disclosure under the personal privacy provisions of Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

New Brunswick joins growing list of provinces who reveal how much they pay doctors

June 27, 2017

New Brunswick has made public how much it pays to each of its doctors.

The province released the names of physicians along with the amounts each received in payments for providing medically insured services last year.

In doing so, it has joined a growing list of jurisdictions that is turning to public disclosure of such data.

Ontario doctors go to court to keep billing information secret

June 19, 2017

Two groups of doctors and the Ontario Medical Association are headed to court Monday to argue that OHIP payments to top-billing physicians are “personal information” and should not be public.

The information and privacy commissioner last year ordered the public disclosure of the top billers’ identities, along with amounts each receives in payments from the taxpayer-funded insurance plan. The information is business-related, not personal, and should be public because of the importance of transparency of government expenditures, the ruling said.

Bill 41 would flood your health care with bureaucracy

October 11, 2016

Renamed Bill 41, the Patients First Act was reintroduced at Queen’s Park on Thursday. The Ontario Medical Association was conspicuously absent from listed supporters. That may be because front-line doctors call Bill 41 the “Bureaucracy First and Patients Last Act

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/10/07/bill-41-would-flood-your-health-care-with-bureaucracy