Achi news desk-
Progress has been made on a new compensation model for family doctors, with the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) hopeful it will be introduced for falls.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the province and the AMA have agreed on a framework for the new model that will help Alberta retain and attract family doctors.
The new combined model will allow some doctors to move away from the current fee-for-service model.
The current model, the AMA says, has left many family practices struggling financially under increased demand and inflationary pressures on overheads and administrative costs.
“They have to run these small businesses … They have to pay all the overheads for the staff, for their lease, everything,” said AMA president Dr. Paul Parks. “Inflation has really borne fruit on those habits, while that funding has not kept up with it.”
The new framework will include compensation based on the size and complexity of panels, as well as money for other administrative costs and time spent indirectly on patient care.
“It has some payoff for the kind of care you do when the patient isn’t in front of you,” Parks said. “My colleagues tell me how they look at labs at 10 o’clock at night if there is an essential lab for their family practice patients.”
While rates and panel size requirements have not been finalized, LaGrange said the “heavy lifting” is done.
“We still have to go to a rate review, there are other things that have to be done, but for all intents and purposes, we have agreed on a funding model that we can support moving forward,” said LaGrange.
Under a stabilization program that began earlier this year, only doctors with more than 500 patients were eligible, and Parks said there were concerns that smaller practices could be left out of the new model depending on the final minimum panel size.
The province said it is working with the AMA to ensure those providers can “join the new model.”
The new framework will also include comprehensive care agreements, moving to more personalized appointments and commitments to the province’s Central Patient Adherence Registry.
Before the plan can be introduced, a management committee will discuss rates for GPs and rural generalists, and the rates committee will have 30 days to reach an agreement.
LaGrange is expected to receive those recommendations by the fall.
Alberta NDP health critic Dr. Luanne Metz to the publication, saying that “no revisions have been made.”
“Alberta is in this situation because the UCP made changes to physician compensation that made it almost impossible for family physicians to continue to practice in the province,” Metz said.
“In January, 61 per cent of GPs indicated that they may have to close their practice within the year, and now GPs are unlikely to see any additional support from this government until the fall at the earliest .”
According to the AMA, $67 million in stabilization funding has gone out to GPs as part of the Transitional Funding Programme. LaGrange said part of a $57 million funding package for primary care support has also been released to the AMA.
Parks said that he is optimistic about the work being done and that he is hopeful that the new model will come into force before the end of the year.
“We are making commitments that we are going to be the most competitive and that we are going to continue to work together to get those rates right,” said Parks.
According to LaGrange, a new funding model for nurse practitioners is also in the works, but no details or timeline were offered Wednesday.
In 2023, Premier Danielle Smith promised that every Albertan would have a primary health care provider by the next election.
LeGrange said Alberta has added 215 family doctors and rural generalists in the past year.
With files from The Canadian Press
