{"id":290984,"date":"2025-11-18T12:34:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290984\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:34:24","slug":"alberta-plans-to-allow-doctors-to-deliver-public-and-private-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290984\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta plans to allow doctors to deliver public and private services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has long pledged to overhaul the province\u2019s health care system.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta intends to allow physicians working in the province\u2019s public health care system to simultaneously offer services in a parallel private market, according to confidential draft legislation obtained by The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith<\/a>\u2019s government has prepared draft amendments that would transform the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act and establish a model for medicine unlike any in the country. No other Canadian province allows doctors to offer care under both systems at the same time.<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith has long pledged to overhaul Alberta\u2019s health care, but neither she nor her United Conservative Party have floated adjustments as significant as those contained in the draft amendments. The proposals could nurture a hybrid system where some Albertans have better access to care than those who rely on the public option, according to experts who reviewed the draft amendments. The changes could also create an environment where private insurance companies could flourish, the experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitely two-tiered medicine,\u201d said Braden Manns, a professor of health policy at the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n

Alberta expands use of private surgical centres in bid to shorten procedure wait-lists<\/a><\/p>\n

The document obtained by The Globe is marked as draft 11, dated Nov. 5, and contains notes from bureaucrats that must be resolved before the amendments are ready for the assembly floor.<\/p>\n

Maddison McKee, a spokeswoman for Adriana LaGrange, Alberta\u2019s Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, would not answer questions about the draft amendments. However, she said the UCP remains committed to its pledge to protect public health care, stating \u201cthat under no circumstances will any Albertan ever have to pay out-of-pocket to see their family doctor or to get the medical treatment they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s draft amendments would create three categories of physicians: those billing the public purse for their services, paid at rates set by the government; those setting their own rates and billing patients privately; and those toggling between the public and private systems.<\/p>\n

The third option is what makes Alberta\u2019s proposal unique. Provinces that allow doctors to opt out of medicare in favour of private billing \u2013 including Alberta, under its existing rules \u2013 do not allow those physicians to concurrently participate in the public system. The Globe in 2023 counted three physicians in Alberta who opted out of the public system. <\/p>\n

Alberta public health system losing staff, funding as province increases spending on private facilities<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec has the most established private health care system in the country, with about 550 family doctors, or 6 per cent of general practitioners in the province, opting out of the publicly funded model, Dr. Manns said. <\/p>\n

The number of physicians opting out of medicare in Quebec is making it more difficult for those in need of medical attention, but without financial means, to access services, Dr. Manns added. Patients in the public system tend to have more complex needs, which require more time and funding to address. But with fewer doctors serving this population, wait times increase, driving demand for private alternatives.<\/p>\n

To address the shortfall, Quebec in April passed a law requiring new doctors to work in the public system for five years<\/a> before they are allowed to participate in the private stream.<\/p>\n

Jon Meddings, the past dean at the University of Calgary\u2019s medical school, said few doctors opt out of medicare in Alberta because, under the existing legislation, it is financially risky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has protected our public system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s proposed hybrid system would give physicians who want to test the private waters opportunity to do so without risking their entire income, because continued access to the public system guarantees work.<\/p>\n

A doctor working in both systems, dubbed a \u201cflexibly-participating physician\u201d under the draft amendments, may \u201cdecide on a case-by-case basis whether to provide a service\u201d under the private or public model. <\/p>\n

Flexibly-participating doctors are not required to notify the government of \u201cthe specific services\u201d they intend to offer under each system, or \u201cthe specific circumstances\u201d under which they intend to provide public or private care, according to the draft amendments.<\/p>\n

Monika Dutt, a family doctor in Nova Scotia and health policy doctoral candidate at McMaster University, said the draft amendments could accelerate the shift toward private health care. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is making it very easy for physicians to charge patients privately whatever they may decide to charge for that service,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Former chair of health research agency urges Alberta to transform patient care<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposed changes would add paperwork for both the doctors and patients. A doctor working exclusively in the private realm, or in both the public and private tracts, must provide patients with certain information before providing health care services under the out-of-pocket system. The checklist includes the amount the patient will be charged and an explanation that the patient, if eligible for the service under the public system, may receive the care at the government\u2019s expense from certain doctors. <\/p>\n

The patient must then agree \u2013 in writing \u2013 to the procedure and price quoted by the doctor, as well as receipt of the information provided by the physician. Only then can the doctor provide care under the private system, according to the draft amendments.<\/p>\n

The draft amendments contain clauses that would give the government the power to restrict the types of services that doctors can offer under the private system in order to ensure \u201cadequate provision\u201d of publicly funded services. The draft amendments would also empower the government to establish the circumstances under which doctors can bill privately.<\/p>\n

The draft amendments prohibit a practice known as \u201cextra billing,\u201d which is also outlawed under Alberta\u2019s existing rules. Doctors providing services paid for by the public system are not permitted to top up their revenue by charging the patient for the same care, according to the draft amendments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has long pledged to overhaul the province\u2019s health care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,392,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-290984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}