I found this article particularly alarming - Security of patient data to be reviewed.
Yesterday, the Record published a report (MDs use private firms to collect patient data) about Metroland West Media Group's investigation of private companies that encourage doctors to sign up for their 'block fees' payment plan. Patients are charged an annual lump-sum rather than have to submit individual payments for fees such as sick-notes, telephone prescription renewals, etc.
The problem is the lack of full disclosure to the patient, which has the The Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner concerned, as well as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
Here's the clincher:
The company acknowledges that the letters appear to come from doctors and says it does not disclose its involvement because physicians have asked it to stay behind the scenes.
So how's that 'public' health care system workin' for ya?
11 comments:
I hope that in this series the Record addresses the topic of how alternative health care providers such as naturopathic doctors can help to address the doctor shortage in Ontario.
I also hope that the article about the private company being involved in helping doctors to charge patients block fees will alert people who might otherwise have signed up for that.
Interesting comment, Steph. Thanks.
I suppose that naturopathic doctors are another example of how private health care is already happening in Ontario.
this just underscores the truth as most Ontarians(dare I say Canadians) know it despite the noise made by some, usually those cocktail socialists, that private healthcare already exist in this province and people who opt for it are doing so when they either get fed-up with not having a doctor, or fed-up waiting for service, or simply because it provides a patient with his/her rightful choice.
Choice is the tool that threatens status-quo state-run service providers like nothing else could.
Otherwise they wouldn't fight it so fiercely.
this just underscores the truth as most Ontarians(dare I say Canadians) know it despite the noise made by some, usually those cocktail socialists, that private healthcare already exist in this province and people who opt for it are doing so when they either get fed-up with not having a doctor, or fed-up waiting for service, or simply because it provides a patient with his/her rightful choice.
Choice is the tool that threatens status-quo state-run service providers like nothing else could.
Otherwise they wouldn't fight it so fiercely.
Thanks, Anon. I think you double-posted so I only let one through.
"I hope that in this series the Record addresses the topic of how alternative health care providers such as naturopathic doctors can help to address the doctor shortage in Ontario."
I hope that anyone who considers any alternative medicine or procedure researches it before they get it. I have researched much of it and consider almost all of it a scam.
All this "one tiered" healthcare obsession is a sham.
Look, do we have one-tiered housing? Or do people with more money live in better houses?
Do we have one-tiered food? Or do you eat better if you earn a living?
Do we have one-tiered education, or can people do a bit extra and send their kids to private school if they think it is worth it?
So, are food, shelter, and education LESS basic rights than medical care? Of course not.
But, if you want buy better care for yourself or your loved ones, and have worked all your life to be able to do so, this is against the law. We all have to queue up in the same line.
Pure politics. No logic, no ethics. Pure politics.
from the National Post's "Canada-in six words of less" contest to find a new motto for our country....
"Brad LeMee suggested that our new motto be "Free health care, just don't get sick." while C.N. Johannesson offered "Medicare, we're dying to keep it."
Politicians take us for idiots.
How many hospitals, doctors, nurses, diagnostic equipment etc. could have been purchased and how many roads, bridges etc could have been built, repaired or improved, with all the money the governments have paid out in lawsuits, legal fees, entitlements, broken contracts, severance and apologies for past sins?
The biggest users of "private" health care in the province are the very people who squawk the loudest against it.
Unionized workers, particularly those in the public sector, have the best health insurance coverage of all.
That private health insurance covers lots of stuff that the ordinary person cannot buy or cannot afford--eye glasses, massages, orthodonty, etc.
Not to mention that in many cases the premiums are paid for by the non-unionized, not benefit covered, taxpayer.
Within a few weeks T4s will be out, and workers can calculate how much of their pay went to paying for health coverage of one kind or another. Lots don't realize these pymts are deductible as medical expenses. But, the biggest shock comes when I ask a married couple, working for the same unionized company, why they are both paying for family coverage. Then I ask, how many pairs of glasses etc did you get last year. Answer, none. How much would a pair of glasses, or eye exam have cost you, compared to what you are paying for nothing. Same goes for dental and a few other things.
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