New doctor pay model a failure

EDMONTON An NDP government plan to entice family doctors to spend more time with their patients by adopting a new payment model has so far proved to be failure.

To date, a clinic in Sylvan Lake is the only physician group in Alberta to have signed up to test the new compensation system.

The government had previously vowed to have five pilot projects up and running around the province by February 2017, followed by another 10 this spring.

“Definitely we were hoping for more. We had five clinics initially sign on saying they were interested, but only one has been able to make a go of it,” said Dr. Neil Cooper, president of the Alberta Medical Association, which has been working on the initiative with the province.

“There were a few pieces of that puzzle that didn’t fall into place.”

The health ministry and the AMA both cited ongoing discomfort from doctors as a major factor behind the poor buy-in, since adopting the new pay model requires substantial changes to how clinic businesses operate.

As well, problems with a government computer system that is supposed to track rosters of patients also scared off some potential applicants, Cooper said.

The lack of progress on implementing the model is somewhat surprising, considering Health Minister Sarah Hoffman at one point suggested that reforming the payment system was an urgent necessity.

The model now being piloted is known as “blended capitation.”

While doctors are permitted to bill some fees, they are also given a “basket” of funding to serve a particular group of patients for a set period of time.

In the case of the Sylvan Family Health Centre, the clinic of nine physicians is responsible for caring for a roster of about 8,000 patients with the money provided.

Since doctors are not being paid per service to the same degree, they can theoretically offer more time and attention in their patient interactions, and have more flexibility in how they deliver care.

The government said it could not yet provide a price estimate for the Sylvan Lake pilot project.