Ontario tests detailed cost statements for patients - Health - Brief Article

Community Action, March 18, 2002

TORONTO -- Ontario will spend $3.7 million on a six-month pilot project in which 50 family physicians will provide patients with detailed statements of the cost of services they have received.

The project addresses both patients' right to know and the need to make them aware of the cost of services, said Health and Long Term Care Minister Tony Clement.

A participating doctor will give each patient an itemized statement listing the services provided and the amount being billed to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. The patient will verify the services were provided by signing the statement and will keep a copy. Confidentiality will be maintained because the transaction is between doctor and patient, Clement said.

Three other Canadian provinces -- Alberta, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island -- have attempted and abandoned similar projects in the past. Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow said that after a few quarterly mailings, people simply ignored the statements.

Dr. Ken Sky, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said the project could simply add a burden of paperwork onto doctors. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario said the money could be spent on hiring more nurses, doctors and other health care workers.

In the late 1960's Ontario provided quarterly statements to patients, listing contacts with doctors that were charged to the health insurance plan but without cost amounts. This was given up as being ineffective as a tool for managing health care costs.

The pilot project will begin in September and involve approximately 15 physician offices and up to 50 physicians at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre downtown site in Toronto. 416-326-3985