Alberta health minister imposes wage deal on physicians

EDMONTON — Alberta imposed a new $463-million pay deal on its physicians Friday – a move the doctors labelled a heavy-handed power play by a health minister uncommitted to fair bargaining.

Health Minister Fred Horne announced that the settlement will be spread out over four years retroactive to March 2011, when the last deal expired. He said the new package keeps Alberta’s 8,250 doctors the best paid in the country.

“We’re 29 per cent above the national average,” Horne said outside his legislature office.

“We’re very proud of being the province that pays the best. We want to continue in that position.”

The new contract includes a one-time lump-sum payment of 2.5 per cent for each physician based on 2011-12 billings.

Annual increases will be tied to the cost of living in each of the next three years.

Dr. Michael Giuffre, head of the Alberta Medical Association, called the deal extremely disappointing.

“If the news was good, I would be standing beside the minister and enjoying our joint success,” Giuffre told physicians in a letter released late Friday afternoon to the media.

He said in earlier negotiations, Horne agreed that 2.5 per cent fee increases for this year and the year past were fair.

“Today this [raise] has been transformed to zero per cent and zero per cent,” he wrote.

Also, he noted, the government is ending two programs to support community based physicians, saving $120 million, but with no guarantee the money will be made up in some other way.

“[Horne] has repeatedly refused to grant me any specific assurance that the funds will be returned to physician practices,” wrote Giuffre.

Horne has also said he will work with doctors to adjust the fee schedule to make sure it is fair in light of changing technologies.

Giuffre told doctors that means some fees will arbitrarily go down but none will go up.

The minister told reporters that he didn’t want to impose a settlement, but saw little choice. After the old deal expired in 2011, the two sides agreed on two more deals in principle, only to see them fall through.