Alberta will have $13.8M deducted from health transfers because patients paid for services: feds | Globalnews.ca

The federal government is deducting a total of $82 million in Canada Health Transfers from provinces, including Alberta, over “patient charges levied during 2020-2021, for medically necessary services that should be accessible to patients at no cost.”

A summary posted online by the government of Canada shows Alberta’s deductions will be $13.8 million.

Federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos sent letters to all provinces and territories, expressing concerns about a recent increase in reports of patient charges for medically necessary services, including telemedicine and some private services.

“There has been evidence of residents paying out of pocket to access diagnostic services such as ultrasounds, MRI and CT scans — services that should be accessible at no cost,” Duclos said in a statement.

“This is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

“It is critical that access to medically necessary services, whether provided in-person or virtually, remains based on medical need and free of charge.”

When asked about this Friday, Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping said he hadn’t seen the letter, hasn’t been fully briefed and didn’t know the amount Alberta would lose.

He said there has been an “ongoing dispute” about how the transfer system works — what’s allowed and not allowed.

“There is, I understand, some dispute about how it’s being interpreted,” Copping said.

He said he looks forward to reviewing the letter from the federal health minister and working with Ottawa on the matter.

He said similar discussions are happening between multiple provinces.

Copping acknowledged there are long waits for some services, especially diagnostic imaging, and the province continues to invest in the health-care system and add capacity.

His federal counterpart Duclos said he plans to clarify the expectation associated with health transfer payments in an interpretation letter attached to the Canada Health Act, which lays out the standards of care Canadians must be able to receive under the public health-care system, no matter where they live.

As part of the $82 million being withdrawn from provinces in their health transfers, there will be $76 million in deductions under the Diagnostic Services Policy, which states that patients should not be charged for medically necessary diagnostic services, such as MRI and CT scans.

Another $6 million will be deducted for other insured services at private surgical clinics and for access to abortion.

Last month, Ottawa reached a $192-billion health-care funding deal with provinces and territories of which roughly $46 billion would be new money.

While Ottawa’s offer was far less than the $28-billion annual increase to the Canada Health Transfer that provinces wanted, the premiers accepted the offer and have been inking bilateral side deals for additional province-specific funds.

More to come…

— with files from Saba Aziz, Global News

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