Calgary doctor announces layoffs, blames billing changes

EDMONTON A Calgary family doctor is laying off two of his four staff members, blaming the province’s recent billing changes for making the practice unsustainable during COVID -19.

In a public letter to be released Tuesday, Dr. Mukarram Zaidi said he has had to inject money to sustain his clinic as it faces financial losses because of changes to the province’s new doctor compensation framework. Fewer patients are also visiting in-person over concerns about the spread of COVID -19.

“I don’t know how long people can sustain a business,” he said in an interview Monday, noting that the reduction in staff will affect how responsive the clinic can be to phone calls from patients.

The layoffs at Zaidi’s clinic Monday and news last week that a Fort Mcmurray doctor is leaving the province because of “instability” in the health-care system suggest the battle between doctors and the provincial government has moved beyond specific challenges faced by rural health-care providers.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro ditched the province’s contract with Alberta doctors in February and introduced 11 changes to how doctors bill the province and get paid, but some parts of that plan have been abandoned in the wake of COVID-19. That included cancelling planned changes to complex modifiers and suspending planned changes to stipends AHS pays to some physicians.

In March, the government added billing codes, with varying fees, so that doctors could bill for virtual visits to encourage physical distancing. Shandro has said that the government is committed to spending $5.4 billion on physician compensation this year, the highest level ever and the highest of all provinces.

Responding to Opposition questions in the legislature in March, Shandro said the province expected to spend significantly more with virtual visits being paid “the same rates as office visits.”

“That’s what physicians asked for to support them and their patients,” he said.

But Zaidi said the rates are “inadequate,” and don’t compensate for all of the work required in the same way in-person visits do.

Phone or virtual consultations introduced extra challenges and sometimes need time-consuming

Patients need to know that if they don’t speak up now then the damage done now it will take years to fix it.

troubleshooting, so Zaidi said he often spends the same amount of time but is only able to charge for half the billings. He said he has had to charge for services he usually did not, such as doctor’s notes, and worries that changes like that could make public health care inaccessible to vulnerable populations.

“Patients need to know that if they don’t speak up now then the damage done now it will take years to fix it,” he said.

He called on Albertans to write their MLA to ask the minister to sign a contract with the Alberta Medical Association.

Zaidi, a UCP party board member and supporter, was confronted by Shandro in his driveway in March after a Facebook post alleged the minister’s involvement in a private company co-owned by his wife constituted a conflict of interest. After the altercation, Shandro responded in a written statement that his wife was subjected to an online campaign of defamation and that he responded passionately to defend her.