On Sept. 6, the B.C. Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit led by Dr. Brian Day against the provincial government. Dr. Day, who owns a for-profit surgery centre, seeks to strike down legislation that puts limits on how doctors can profit from medically necessary services
Fundamentally the potential implications of the lawsuit are that many people in Canada won’t be able to afford health care and many people will end up waiting longer for treatment. This lawsuit strikes at the bedrock of Canadian public health care, which is the agreement that we will all be able to access care when we need it, based on our need and not our ability to pay for it.
He is the co-owner of the Cambie Surgery Centre. That is a private for-profit clinic in Vancouver. He has been a vocal proponent of for-profit care for quite a long time.
His clinics were the subject of a bunch of complaints by patients who were trying to access care there. As a result of their complaints, he got notice that his clinics were going to be audited. Instead of opening his doors and allowing the audit to take place and then reimbursing patients that he may have illegally billed, he joined with a bunch of other for-profit clinics and launched this constitutional challenge.
Dr. Day fought the audit for years in court before the Province finally got entry into his clinics and were able to do a limited audit, only over a period of 30 days. But what they found was nearly half a million dollars in illegal billing. In some cases, the physicians in the clinic were charging up to seven times the legal amount.
There’s a second audit underway looking at specific physicians working in Dr. Day’s clinic, because what was also found was evidence of double billing, which is essentially double dipping. Let’s say you’re a doctor and I come to you for a procedure, and you bill me the MSP amount and then you turn around and also bill MSP the same amount. (MSP is B.C.’s Medical Services Plan).
The case gives insight into the kind of practice that Dr. Day runs and would like to expand in Canada, and it also gives us a sense of the really problematic things that can go on in private health care facilities when profit is the motive.
What is Dr. Day's argument? ....... https://ricochet.media/en/1366/heal...se-in-bc-could-open-the-door-to-privatization
Fundamentally the potential implications of the lawsuit are that many people in Canada won’t be able to afford health care and many people will end up waiting longer for treatment. This lawsuit strikes at the bedrock of Canadian public health care, which is the agreement that we will all be able to access care when we need it, based on our need and not our ability to pay for it.
He is the co-owner of the Cambie Surgery Centre. That is a private for-profit clinic in Vancouver. He has been a vocal proponent of for-profit care for quite a long time.
His clinics were the subject of a bunch of complaints by patients who were trying to access care there. As a result of their complaints, he got notice that his clinics were going to be audited. Instead of opening his doors and allowing the audit to take place and then reimbursing patients that he may have illegally billed, he joined with a bunch of other for-profit clinics and launched this constitutional challenge.
Dr. Day fought the audit for years in court before the Province finally got entry into his clinics and were able to do a limited audit, only over a period of 30 days. But what they found was nearly half a million dollars in illegal billing. In some cases, the physicians in the clinic were charging up to seven times the legal amount.
There’s a second audit underway looking at specific physicians working in Dr. Day’s clinic, because what was also found was evidence of double billing, which is essentially double dipping. Let’s say you’re a doctor and I come to you for a procedure, and you bill me the MSP amount and then you turn around and also bill MSP the same amount. (MSP is B.C.’s Medical Services Plan).
The case gives insight into the kind of practice that Dr. Day runs and would like to expand in Canada, and it also gives us a sense of the really problematic things that can go on in private health care facilities when profit is the motive.
What is Dr. Day's argument? ....... https://ricochet.media/en/1366/heal...se-in-bc-could-open-the-door-to-privatization