After a four-plus year battle, the provincial government and the Ontario Medical Association finally have a new fee contract — one that does not include a cap on how much doctors can be paid, but requires the elimination of $460-million worth of “inappropriate” medical services.A three-member board of arbitration released its decision in the dispute on Tuesday. The dispute was referred to binding arbitration in 2017, after the two sides were unable to reach a negotiated settlement.“It seems to us that at the centre of our mission in resolving the matters in dispute is (ensuring) a high-quality patient-centred sustainable publicly funded health-care system with fair and reasonable compensation for Ontario’s physicians,” wrote the board, chaired by arbitrator William Kaplan. At more than $12 billion, physician compensation accounts for about 22 per cent of the health ministry’s $56-billion budget, the decision notes.“Caution in increasing expenditures is obviously called for together with acknowledgement that fiscal resources are not infinite and that an increase in one area — for example, physician compensation — will have an impact in others,” it reads.The new four-year physicians services agreement is partially retroactive, running from April 1, 2017 to March 30, 2021. Read more: Schism within government on how to deal with the Ontario Medical Association puts premier and health minister at oddsOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: How Ontario’s doctors lost faith in Doug Ford — and each otherOntario’s doctors say contract talks have collapsedThe board rejected the province’s request for a hard cap to be placed on the total amount physicians can bill the province annually. “If the ministry wishes to limit the insured physician services patients receive, it can readily do so. What it cannot do is achieve this outcome by requiring Ontario doctors to subsidize public services. Th ...
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