After a four-plus year battle, the provincial government and the Ontario Medical Association finally have a new fee contract — one that does not include a cap on how much doctors can be paid, but requires the elimination of $460-million worth of "inappropriate" medical services.
A three-member board of arbitration released its decision in the dispute on Tuesday. The dispute was referred to binding arbitration in 2017, after the two sides were unable to reach a negotiated settlement.
"It seems to us that at the centre of our mission in resolving the matters in dispute is (ensuring) a high-quality patient-centred sustainable publicly funded health-care system with fair and reasonable compensation for Ontario's physicians," wrote the board, chaired by arbitrator William Kaplan.
At more than $12 billion, physician compensation accounts for about 22 per cent of the health ministry's $56-billion budget, the decision notes.
"Caution in increasing expenditures is obviously called for together with acknowledgement that fiscal resources are not infinite and that an increase in one area — for example, physician compensation — will have an impact in others," it reads.
The new four-year physicians services agreement is partially retroactive, running from April 1, 2017 to March 30, 2021.
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