Doctors seek arbitration as another fee cut looms

With just days to go before Ontario doctors get hit with a 1.3-per-cent fee cut, they are pushing hard behind the scenes to get the province to allow a third party to reconsider the move.

“We are talking to them specifically about trying to establish a dispute resolution mechanism like binding arbitration, bringing in a neutral (party) who has got some authority,” said Dr. Ved Tandan, past president of the Ontario Medical Association, on Monday.

The province announced earlier this month that fee-for-service payments to Ontario’s 28,000 doctors will be cut across the board by 1.3 per cent, effective Thursday.

While there are no official contract talks underway, representatives from both sides are in contact behind the scenes. In making a case for binding arbitration, Tandan said the OMA is highlighting the fact that eight other provinces and territories have such a mechanism in place.

“Ontario is a minority in this,” he argued.

But the province points out that a neutral third party did weigh in on last year’s contract negotiations, albeit with a non-binding report. Ontario’s former chief justice Warren Winkler was brought in as conciliator after a year of talks ended in an impasse.

In his December 2014 report, Winkler urged the OMA to reconsider its rejection of the government’s final offer. The OMA did not.

“I sort of view him as an umpire where he looked at both positions and made a decision and the umpire ruled in our favour. We wish that the OMA had accepted that,” Health Minister Eric Hoskins said last week.

The government unilaterally imposed its final offer, which included 2.65 per cent in fee cuts, which took effect in February. The latest round of cuts are also being imposed unilaterally. Physicians in Ontario receive an average annual gross compensation of $350,000.