A Victoria-based family doctor says the B.C. government hasn㽶Ƶֱt paid her for the month of January, and it has her considering leaving the province during a doctor shortage.
Dr. Emanuela Tura says all of her invoices for last month have been rejected.
㽶ƵֱI have to resubmit the rejected invoices sometimes multiple times,㽶Ƶֱ Tura said. 㽶ƵֱThis is the first time that all my invoices were rejected. My experience for the past two years has been that about 30 to 50 per cent of my invoices are initially rejected. Some payments are never received. As this occurs every pay period, the number of unpaid invoices keeps growing.㽶Ƶֱ
The process to resubmit rejected invoices can take three to nine months.
㽶ƵֱI spend about a day a week trying to sort out payments that I am not receiving and handling various bureaucratic issues when I could be seeing patients instead,㽶Ƶֱ Tura added.
British Columbia㽶Ƶֱs Medical Services Plan (MSP) says the problem is a glitch. Doctors typically have an electronic medical record system to chart patients㽶Ƶֱ information, and they can submit claims to MSP from this computer platform.
㽶ƵֱMSP may reject our claims due to IT issues between MSP and our electronic medical record system,㽶Ƶֱ Tura said. 㽶ƵֱI use an electronic medical record system that is common in Victoria and B.C. The MSP system is designed to reject some claims. This may require doctors to resubmit them multiple times. MSP may need to process them manually, which may take from several weeks to several months.㽶Ƶֱ
Tura㽶Ƶֱs family is keeping her in B.C., but she says she can㽶Ƶֱt continue working under these conditions.
㽶ƵֱI feel like I keep hitting a wall any time I try to provide care in Victoria,㽶Ƶֱ Tura said. 㽶ƵֱProviding care here seems like an impossible task. I have certainly seen a number of hospital doctors struggling with their payments and eventually leaving the job.㽶Ƶֱ
Tura previously worked in Brisbane, Australia for almost two years, where she was paid every week.
㽶ƵֱAustralia is light years away from B.C.,㽶Ƶֱ Tura said. 㽶ƵֱIn the city, there are family doctors at every corner. The access to care is much easier. The Australian government partially or fully subsidizes most medications, as well as many of the allied members such as psychologists, dietitians, audiologists, chiropractors and physiotherapists. Hybrid care is available for medical services as well.㽶Ƶֱ
B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon, provincial Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau and Liberal health-care critic Shirley Bond have all spoken with Tura about this issue.
㽶ƵֱThey are all very supportive,㽶Ƶֱ Tura said. 㽶ƵֱI believe they have tried to bring this to the attention of the Ministry [of Health]. I haven㽶Ƶֱt seen any outcome yet.㽶Ƶֱ
Tura says Bond and Falcon are looking into the problem.
㽶ƵֱIn order to change, it would require the Ministry of Health to admit that the MSP payment method is flawed and to request MSP release payments immediately,㽶Ƶֱ Tura added.
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