Health Archives | Best CCTV Security Camera

“Converting doctor’s offices to premium clinics could spawn a new health-care crisis”

Leave a Comment / Politics, Health / admin

Best CCTV Security Camera in Brampton Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones, owner of the Marda Loop Medical Clinic, has offered current patients enhanced health-care services for up to $4,800 per year for families. (Colin Hall/CBC) Best CCTV Camera in Brampton News that a Calgary medical clinic has solicited “member” fees from its patients will no doubt shock many Albertans, regardless of their ability to pay for enhanced care. But the believers in an equitable, fully public health care system should understand this challenging reality: some Alberta clinics have been charging patients thousands for premium services since well before Premier Danielle Smith’s tenure. The trend predates UCP predecessor Jason Kenney. And the NDP’s Rachel Notley. In fact, you can go back five premiers into the Tory dynasty, to the latter days of Ralph Klein in 2006, to find a government and health ministry reckoning with a new private health clinic offering a boutique or “concierge” service for willing residents. And similar clinics have existed in other provinces like Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. But there’s something that seems to set the Marda Loop Clinic apart, that many Albertans will reasonably find unsettling. What appears to be different or novel in this case is that Marda Loop is an existing clinic that’s switching over to premium-pay service. Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones’ clinic in an inner-city southwest Calgary neighbourhood recently sent existing patients a letter about what it called a “transformative health care initiative.” It offered reduced wait times, longer appointments and an array of other perks, through membership that costs up to $4,800 for families. Clinic patients who opt not to become paid members could still receive care from their doctor, but only one day a week. The long-controversial but long-sanctioned Copeman Healthcare Centre chain of private clinics set up as new operations seeking a new list of patients. For patients at Marda Loop, the doctor and clinic they’d relied on for years transformed beneath their feet. The switch from a public doctor’s clinic to a (mostly) private boutique seems like the health-care equivalent of a condominium conversion — in which a landlord evicts the apartment renters to renovate and sell the units as condos. Shifting apartments to higher-cost condos pushes tenants out of their existing units and makes them seek units elsewhere. That’s a big problem when vacancy rates are low and affordability is scarce. Marda Loop Clinic’s conversion comes during a similar scarcity crisis in health care. Cheap CCTV Camera in Brampton In an email sent to clients July 19, Marda Loop Medical Clinic informed its clients it would be introducing a “membership-based medical service,” running $4,800 a year for a two-parent family membership. Such arrangements have been growing increasingly common in recent years, experts say. (Mike Symington/CBC) Home CCTV Camera in Brampton It’s gotten harder to find a family doctor. And that will do two things in this case: leave people who cannot afford membership fees either scrounging or unable to find a family doctor; and add pressure on existing patients to pay up, rather than lose access to their physician. This development also stands to make countless other Albertans wonder: will my doctor’s clinic do this, and will I be faced with the same choice Talbot-Jones imposed on her clinic’s patients? Will I have to reckon with the consequences of either adding $400 to our monthly family budget, or losing the physicians and nurses who understand our medical histories? A health system that doesn’t penalize or disincentivize doctors for partially converting clinics to members-only private boutiques will risk unleashing a wave of changeovers that affects hundreds of thousands of patients. Enter the federal health department, and the Canada Health Act, the law supposed to enshrine public health care. Whereas other full-fledged private clinics operate in a grey area of legality, experts say the commingling of private and public service becomes more problematic. “Health Canada has written to Alberta officials to inform them that the ability for patients to purchase preferential access is contrary to the Canada Health Act,” the department told CBC on Tuesday. “We are working collaboratively with the province of Alberta to ensure the clinic’s patients continue to receive medically necessary services free of patient charges.” At the pointy end of this stick, Ottawa could withhold funding if the province didn’t comply with this interpretation of the Health Act. In other words, the province cannot condone this clinic conversion or any others like it. And the doctor at Marda Loop suggested others would be tempted to follow. Talbot-Jones told CBC that because of high overhead and growing pressures, she and other clinics have considered exploring new economic models. “A lot of doctors are facing bankruptcy in their clinics,” the doctor said. “I follow Facebook groups where lots of doctors all over the country, they’re all seeing the same thing.” The College of Family Physicians of Canada voiced such a dual warning with its statement on Marda Loop: “Charging patients for access goes against the principles of Canada Health Act, but is symptomatic of the pressures amid the crisis facing family doctors.” The private-only boutique clinic model has been around for years, but has never taken off. Marda Loop’s hybrid solution, taking existing patient lists and demanding charges, stood to spread more widely, if permitted. But it appears it won’t be permitted. A crackdown won’t somehow solve the crisis to the sustainability of family medicine, but it does prevent a potential new front to this crisis. Health Canada says it has written to Alberta officials to inform them that the ability for patients “to purchase preferential access” at a Calgary clinic runs contrary to the Canada Health Act. “We are working collaboratively with the province of Alberta to ensure the clinic’s patients continue to receive medically necessary services free of patient charges,” the government department wrote in an email. On Monday, CBC News reported that a Calgary clinic had told its members that it would be moving to a membership model. The pricing under that model, shared with CBC News, was listed as $4,800 per year for a two-parent family membership, covering two adults and their

“Converting doctor’s offices to premium clinics could spawn a new health-care crisis” Read More »

“New health plan for federal workers has some members feeling like they ‘fell through the cracks'”

Because of changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan, Louise Sullivan said her husband Mike is giving up the majority of his physiotherapy treatments which, after a stroke eight years ago, have allowed him to retain some mobility and regain some independence. Louise Sullivan stretches a brace across her husband’s knee, then holds his arm while he attempts to hobble from their living room to the kitchen and back. Michael Fairhead is noticeably exhausted. As is she. The Ottawa couple — both retired federal public servants in their mid-sixties — used to live an active life, travelling the world before Fairhead lost function in most of his right side after a stroke eight years ago. But Sullivan believes what little mobility he still has would not have been possible without years of intensive physiotherapy, something she says will now be reduced significantly after the government of Canada made a series of changes to the country’s largest health insurance plan — the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP). “Without the physio, what’s going to happen is his body is going to atrophy,” she said. “What I’m really worried about is he’s going to get to the point where he won’t be able to do anything on his own and I will be left doing all the things that he can now do.” Sullivan and Fairhead are among the 1.7 million federal workers, retirees and dependents who saw their insurance provider switch from Sun Life to Canada Life on July 1, and with it changes to what services and drugs are covered, how they’re approved and what happens when they need to talk to an agent. The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), which oversees labour relations between the federal government and the public sector, said changes made to the PSHCP, including claim limits, coverage terms and eligibility, were approved in the fall of 2022 — independent of the switch to Canada Life. Those changes came into effect after Canada Life won a tender to administer the plan. Still, CBC News has heard from dozens of members who say they’re frustrated by both the government and the insurance provider. Louise Sullivan worries that her husband, Michael Fairhead, pictured here, will regress without continued intensive physiotherapy, something she can no longer afford under the Public Service Health Care Plan’s coverage changes. (Jean Delisle/CBC) In Fairhead’s case, coverage for his physiotherapy used to be practically unlimited. Under the previous terms, the couple was covered at 80 per cent for claims up to $500 and claims over $1,000. Now, it’s capped at $1,500 annually. The cost for his physiotherapy last year was more than $14,000, according to Sullivan. In response to the new cap, Sullivan said she’s made the difficult decision to cut his physiotherapy from three days a week to once a week at most. While she plans to help him with whatever exercise she can, she knows she won’t be able to make up for the difference. “That’s my biggest fear is that he’s going to get to the point where he’s going to be so sore and so stiff that he won’t even want to get out of bed and that will devastate me,” she said. Along with coverage limits, the new plan dictates people must choose generic drugs. Beverley Cormier, 59, recently switched to a new medication to help with flare-ups for her rheumatoid arthritis. Under her husband’s plan, the first month was covered at 80 per cent by Sun Life, but when the next 30 days were set to go through, she learned from the drug’s maker, Pfizer, that it had been declined by Canada Life. “It’s really hard how you can explain to people how one day you feel really good and then the next day you can hardly move and this medication was making such a big difference in such a short amount of time,” she said, her voice cracking. That medication comes with a $1,700 a month price tag. Cormier had only been on the medication for a month before the terms of the plan changed. Her husband, Norm Cormier — a veteran who worked for the military for 27 years — contemplated coming out of retirement to find another job. Not being able to get through to an agent at Canada Life after being denied twice for the medication compounded the frustration. Canada Life has since covered the drug after CBC asked Treasury Board President Mona Fortier’s office about it. The TBS told CBC the medication requires prior approval. “When it’s your medication and you’re suffering, you just want somebody to tell you something,” Beverley Cormier said. She did suffer. Because of the delay getting the medication approved, she went 10 days without it, resulting in a debilitating flare-up. Susan Judges, 52, is also eligible for the plan because her husband is a veteran. She had to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket for medications before problems with her plan were resolved earlier this month. Despite calling four to five times a day since the switchover and sending emails, it took weeks before anyone from the company responded. Louise Sullivan tries to assist her husband, Michael Fairhead, with some of his daily exercises. The struggle to get out of his wheelchair and shuffle a few metres might as well be a marathon — one she fears he’ll lose the ability to even attempt. (Jean Delisle/CBC) “I feel like we fell through the cracks,” she told CBC. Yet, she still faces weeks before being reimbursed the $300 because of ongoing problems with their enrolment — a decision between paying for food or medication. “I’ve maxed out my credit cards paying for the little medication that I do have right now,” said Judges. The multitude of worries and frustrations are ones Roy Goodall has heard over the last few weeks. “It’s a terrible situation,” said the president of the National Association of Federal Retirees. “I don’t envy the people who are faced with this.” He said the association plans to address the cap on physio coverage with the government when there’s a review of coverage in two years. In the meantime,