The government’s decision to have hospitals compete with independent health facilities for the right to deliver services ranging from cataracts to colonoscopies is among the most controversial health care decisions to emerge recently from the Wynne government. The Ontario Health … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: Independent Health Facilities
False positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Ontario Budget Debate Ignores Taxes and Billions Transferred to For-Profit Corporations
Ontario’s budget debate may be high profile, but it misses two essential points. With the NDP signaling NO TAX INCREASES (on the middle class) a serious discussion about taxes, particularly the need to increase corporate and wealth taxes, will not take place. It is hard to have any serious budget
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Cream skimming by private clinics only makes situation worse for Ontario’s hospitals
There is no question that hospitals are struggling these days. This is the second year of a base funding freeze that effectively translates into a real cut of three per cent or more each year. Many hospitals also have to … Continue reading →
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Regulatory changes suggests hospitals soon to divest outpatient procedures
In the dead of summer the province gave notice that it intends to bring the independent health facilities (IHFs) under the Local Health Integration Networks. The change in regulation states their intention to shift “low-risk ambulatory services from a hospital … Continue reading →
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Private Hospitals in Specialty Clinic Clothing
The provincial government’s mid-summer announcement that regulations under the Independent Health Facilities (IHF) Act will be drafted to permit “specialty clinics” raises some serious concerns. Changes in the LHINS enabling legislation will also be required. While the details are sparse the government’s stated goal is to permit the LHINs, Ontario’s
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Auditor’s Report — Warning flags about diagnostic self referrals
Today’s release by the Ontario Health Coalition regarding the 2012 report by the Auditor General of Ontario: Toronto – The Ontario Auditor General’s report released today raises warning flags about inadequate access to care and the perils of for-profit privatization. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Response to Toronto Star Pro For-Profit Clinic Opinion Piece
On December 10, Rick Janson, Campaigns Officer, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, published the following post in response to an opinion piece in the Toronto Star: Who should you trust? Former PC advisor shills in the Star for private health care Francesca Grosso says she is an established expert in health
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Quality Program Fee Increases and IHF Corporate Concentration
This year Independent Health Facilities (IHFs) in Ontario will start paying an annual administrative fee to cover the costs of their quality control program plus a new fee for the direct costs of each quality assessment. Prior to June 2012 the Ministry of Health had paid the College of Physicians
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Health Facility License Auction Health Cost Driver
It seems so obvious in hindsight: if you want to know what is going on in business-side of community medicine look where doctors look – the classified section of The Medical Post. After reading all of the articles, during a slow day at work, a big flashy classified ad for
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Public Interest Duty Should Stop Shouldice Sale
Can Ontario’s Minister of Health, Deb Mathews, stop the transfer of the Shouldice Clinic to the health care conglomerate, Centric? Absolutely, it is within her powers under the Private Hospitals Act: as a friend of mine said, “they wrote better laws 50 years ago.” The Private Hospitals Act mandates that the
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Are OHIP Fees to High? – Part 1
Ontario’s recent decisions to cut fees for doctors’ services and move more services from hospitals to community facilities, called independent health facilities (IHF), raise numerous questions about doctors incomes, fee-for-service payment and for-profit clinics. The Ontario government is arguing that they need to cut many fees because technology has changed
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Independent Health Facilities and For-Profit Delivery: Reassuring Words, Troubling Results
Who said these words and when? We have three broad objectives: to develop a more community-based health care system to ensure that patients receive quality medical care as close to home as possible; that the procedures are carried out in a safe, effective manner; and to regulate facilities so that
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Health Integration: Not in Ontario
I am sure there is a plan to improve health care. There must be: Ontario’s recent budget says it wants to improve integration, control costs and increase access. Yet Ontario’s provincial budget just does not do it. The section heading says “Providing the right care, at the right time, in
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