Long-term care bill for patient rolled back
Province cites income data error
A hefty hike in the long-term care bill for a Wascana Rehabilitation Centre (WRC) patient has been eased somewhat after a review of the issue, which likely resulted from a communication breakdown.
Gerry Ennis, a patient at WRC, and Nicole Dobson, his daughter and power of attorney, were livid after they received a letter dated May 31 from the Ministry of Health. The letter stated Ennis would be paying $2,689 per month effective July 1 — up from the minimum rate of $1,086 monthly that he had been charged.
Ennis and his daughter raised their concerns with media who were at an event at WRC on Wednesday, which was attended by Health Minister Jim Reiter. On his way out of the building, Reiter met briefly with Ennis and told him his office would look into the cost increase.
Later that afternoon, a ministry official contacted Dobson to notify her that her father will be paying $1,791 a month.
“I’m happy that they’ve looked into it,” Dobson said Thursday. “Of course, that’s a considerable amount less than what he was facing, but I just find it sad that it had to take something like what happened (Wednesday) for them to look into one case. And where there’s one, there’s always more.”
According to the provincial government, Ennis was charged the minimum rate when he was admitted to the rehab centre in October 2016 because his income information was not provided.
However, Dobson maintains she supplied her father’s financial information when he was at the short-stay unit at the Pasqua Hospital and again when he was transferred to WRC.
She learned Wednesday that the most recent information she submitted on May 30 wasn’t received by the ministry until June 9.
The Ministry of Health is working with staff at WRC to track down the source of the error and correct it.
Individuals with long-term care concerns can call the Drug Plan and Extended Benefits branch of the Ministry of Health at 306-7875023.
In situations where the ministry has made an error in the fee amount, the fee level will be corrected and backdated to the date when the error occurred.