Jun 13, 2017
By Jane Brown
Canadian patients and public healthcare advocates are coming forward with more stories of double dipping by doctors who work in the public system, but also charge some patients extra fees for quicker access to medical care.
They are coming forward after a Globe and Mail investigation that found significant, unlawful extra billing by doctors through private doctor owned clinics where patients increasingly pay out of pocket to access everything from medical appointments to surgery.
Under provincial laws, doctors who bill the public system are not allowed to charge patients to access any type of medically necessary service.
Natalie Mehra is executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition and author of a report released Saturday about private clinics and double dipping. She says some of the stories of 250 patients surveyed across Canada are heartbreaking. Often she says, they were written in the shaky script of an elderly person who said the fees wiped out their pension income for the month. Some were unable to pay rent.
Natalie Mehra will have more to say about this issue on Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back with Libby Znaimer after today’s noon news.
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