Private clinics misleading Ontario patients, advocates say
Ontario Health Coalition says many clinics are billing patients for medically unnecessary services
Many private clinics in Ontario are misleading patients and billing them for medically unnecessary services, public health advocates charged Tuesday.
A “significant” number of clinics contacted by the Ontario Health Coalition were charging patients extra fees on top of billing the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for necessary procedures, such as colonoscopies, the group said.
One clinic was charging patients $50 “administrative fees” for such things as a snack and patient records, according to OHC, which worked with six university students to conduct the research.
Such fees were more common among cataract clinics, which were charging patients hundreds and even thousands of dollars for medically unnecessary tests and procedures when they came in for needed surgery, said OHC’s executive director Natalie Mehra.
Clinics are manipulating patients, who are confused about what they need and what they don’t need, she said. Some patients they spoke to were concerned that if they refused to pay extra fees, that they would get substandard care.
Ontario patient group seeks to stop shift of some services to private sector
TORONTO — Ontario’s Liberal government is putting community hospitals and medicare at risk with a plan to turn a wide range of services over to private clinics that will extra bill patients, a health care advocacy group warned Monday. The Ontario Health Coalition said taking such things as diagnostic services, physiotherapy and operations like cataract surgeries out of hospitals and having them provided by private clinics is a direct threat to publicly-funded medicare.
“This is a giant step towards American-style private health care, there’s no question,” said coalition executive director Natalie Mehra. “Virtually all of the private clinics that exist in Canada bill the public health system and they charge extra user fees too. That’s illegal under the Canada Health Act, but that’s routine in the private clinics.” Patients going to private clinics in Ontario can be billed up to $1,300 in extra fees for cataract surgery, while people looking for endoscopies or colonoscopies face fees of $80 to $200 above what’s billed to OHIP, said Mehra.
“These are services patients have paid for already through our taxes, and the private clinics are bringing in two-tier health care,” she said. “The Ministry of Health has turned a blind eye to these charges, and is now expanding the private clinic sector.” Health Minister Deb Matthews was unavailable for comment Monday, but her office said the government was committed to “move more routine, low-risk procedures into the community” through non-profit clinics.
Walk-In Doctor Clinics in Toronto
