Audits of private health clinics to be completed by year’s end: NDP

By

VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – BC’s new health minister is promising to get to the bottom of long-standing complaints about overbilling by private medical clinics.

Adrian Dix is working with the federal government to investigate possible violations of the Canada Health Act which forbids extra billing for medically necessary care. “I would expect [it] to be done before the end of the year. Those audits are, of course, important. They’re to ensure the law is being obeyed.”

He adds extra billing occurs when a patient is asked to pay for services which should already be covered by the government.

“Access to medical care is based on need and not an individual’s ability to pay and there was really a fairly long interruption under the Liberal government — a very significant gap between 2011 and 2017 when the previous government stopped doing such audits.”

Dix isn’t naming the clinics under review because, at this point, there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing. “The audit reports will be made public, but that will be a little bit of time from now. In fairness to people, you don’t want to create a negative impression until you have the facts.”

He adds efforts are already being made to reduce long wait times for surgery in the public system. “I’ve been health minister for a month and we’re clearly looking at ways to make the system more efficient, so we can provide a higher level of care and so, we’re looking at the waitlist issue right now and action will follow.”

During this spring’s provincial election campaign, the NDP also promised to build urgent care centres that would essentially be facilities that would have more services than a walk-in clinic, but not at the level of a hospital.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today