Daily cap temporarily removed, lump sum payment details

November 21, 2022

Dear Members,

Daily services cap temporarily removed

Since our agreement with government was ratified, we have been making progress on various pieces of implementation.

Today, in a joint news conference with the minister, we announced that there will no longer be a daily cap on the number of services a physician can fully bill for. Members will recall that the daily services cap policy was introduced as part of the government’s Physician Funding Framework in 2020. The daily visit services cap policy change will be reviewed and it's impacts assessed before determining the future policy beyond the current fiscal year. For now, we are pleased to see this removed as it will help to alleviate some of the pressure in our system.

Lump-sum payment

The agreement between the AMA and government includes a 1% rate increase in each of the next three years and a 1% recognition lump-sum payment in 2022-23. This lump-sum payment is an additional amount in recognition of the difficulties faced by physicians in the last few years. The payment will be roughly $4,100 per physician, with an initial payment planned before the end of the calendar year. A possible second ‘top-up’ payment will be calculated in the new year. We are working through the mechanics of the payment itself with government and will have more details soon.

As a reminder, the one-time payment will be paid to physicians who:

• are full members of the AMA for 2022/23 year, and
• were full practicing physicians during the April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 fiscal year, and
• provided “insured services” or publicly funded medically required services, or public health services paid by Alberta Health Services during that same timeframe.

The payment amount for each eligible physician will based on their income earned for the eligible services.

I will share details on Medical Liability Reimbursement and Continuing Medical Education later this week.

If you have thoughts or questions, you can always get in touch via president@albertadoctors.org . You can also comment on this letter on the AMA website.
 
Regards,

fred Rinaldi, MD, CCFP, FCFP, LLB, MBA, MPA(HSA), BCom
President, Alberta Medical Association
 
"Fate whispers to the warrior, 'You can not withstand the storm.' The warrior whispers back, 'I am the storm.'"