The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from doctors who want to keep names of top OHIP billers secret.The Ontario Medical Association and two small groups of doctors had sought to overturn a lower court ruling that granted the Star access to the names and OHIP payments of the top 100 billing physicians in the province.The Supreme Court decision Thursday means the Ontario Ministry of Health must comply with a 2016 order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario to release physician-identified billing data to the Star.The ruling ends a five-year quest by the Star to get access to the information.“We are very happy with this decision. The Star’s fight for the release of this information is not a fight against doctors, but for the public’s right to understand how their tax money is being spent,” said Star Editor Irene Gentle.“As previous courts ruled, this information is in the public interest, helps people keep the government accountable and contributes to a better understanding of how their health dollars are being spent,” she continued.“That it took five years to get here is an example of why public service journalism is both expensive and important.”In April 2014, the Star filed a freedom-of-information request to the health ministry, seeking names, medical specialities and OHIP payments of the top 100 billers in each of the past five years.The ministry responded by releasing the payments and specialties for most of the physicians in question, but not their names. Disclosing names would be an “unjustified invasion of personal privacy,” the ministry reasoned.The Star successfully appealed the ministry’s decision to the privacy commissioner.The doctors then appealed the privacy commissioner’s order to the Ontario Divisional Court, but lost. They tried again with the Ontario Court of Appeal, but lost there too.The Supreme Court’s decision brings an end to the l ...
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