Improved oversight of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan is to be unveiled this week at Queen’s Park.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says as part of the fall economic statement on Wednesday, the OHIP overhaul would see proactive disclosure of doctor billings and tougher audits.

A Toronto Star report quotes Elliott as saying, “there is a lot of interest on the part of the public to have a healthcare system that is open and transparent and physicians’ billings are part of that.”

Sixteen-billion dollars a year is spent by Ontario taxpayers on OHIP. That amounts to 25 percent of all healthcare spending and about 10 percent of the entire budget.

More than $12- billion of the $16-billion goes into the physician services budget. The remainder pays for the costs associated with out-of-country patient care, Telehealth, diagnostic clinics and OHIP funded dental surgeons and optometrists.