Ophthalmologists bill more than any other type of doctor in Ontario, but experts say there’s good reason.Ministry of Health data obtained by the Star shows there is a disproportionately high number of eye doctors among the province’s top billers between the fiscal years 2011-12 and 2017-18. Three of the top 10 are ophthalmologists; nine of the top 20. Of the 194 highest-billing doctors in the data, 54 are ophthalmologists who billed an average of $1.9 million per year. Billings don’t reflect take-home pay as doctors cover such overhead costs as office space, equipment and staff out of their totals.In publishing data about these doctors, the Star is revealing how tax dollars are spent and pressing for greater accountability in a cash-strapped health system. Physician compensation costs Ontario about $12 billion annually and amounts to about 8 per cent of the entire provincial budget.There are about 400 ophthalmologists in Ontario and, if you exclude the top 10, “you’ll find that the vast majority of ophthalmologists in the province, their billings are not as excessive as one would think,” said Dr. Sherif El-Defrawy, chair of the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences at the University of Toronto.Still, ophthalmologists bill more per year than any other medical specialist, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.In 2016-17, the average ophthalmologist in Ontario received $723,768 in gross billings. This is more than $80,000 higher on average than the second-ranked specialists, cardiovascular surgeons, who billed $639,432. The average doctor in Ontario billed $344,531. “With a growing and aging population, there has been a significant increase in the need for ophthalmology services,” said Dr. Raj Rathee, chair of the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, in a statement sent to the Star.In the last decade, the population of Ontario has grown by about two million to reach 14.3 mil ...
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