June 24, 2014 President's Letter

Be sure to read PCC Process for Individual Fee Review

June 24, 2014

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Dear Member:

On June 19 you should have received your copy of the Physician Compensation Committee (PCC) Update newsletter. This issue included an important document: PCC Process for Individual Fee Review.

I think most members know that PCC has been asked to conduct an individual fee review. This is a first step that will contribute to a long-term fee relativity process. The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) has always said that we are more than willing to modernize the fee schedule to reflect the way care is delivered today. If that’s going to happen, though, we need a solid process, transparency in decision making, good evidence and plenty of input from the physicians and groups affected by any changes.

The PCC process document moves us in the right direction. If you haven’t read your issue of PCC Update, you can link to it here (http://bit.ly/1w3Ibz4). As you can see from the process document, there are six stages:

  1. Establishing the criteria for selecting codes to be reviewed and then identifying the codes accordingly.
  2. Conducting the review and making a preliminary decision.
  3. Gathering input from the sections that would be affected.
  4. Using the information that was gathered from that consultation to make a final decision on the item.
  5. Implementing the decision in the most prudent manner possible.
  6. Monitoring the impact of the decision and making adjustments if necessary.

There is more detail about how all of this will work in the PCC Update. I encourage you to read it carefully. We have already shared this information with your section presidents, but both the section leaders and the AMA Board of Directors need to know what you think. The board has spent a lot of time talking about how to support sections in fee review and future relativity work. Making sure that member input is heard and incorporated appropriately is a big part of that work.

Once you have reviewed the PCC document, let us know what you think. You can contact your section president or me or both. Please let us know what you like, what you don’t like and any thoughts you have for going forward.

You can reach me, as always, by email at president@albertadoctors.org or comment below.

Sincerely,
Allan S. Garbutt, PhD, MD, CCFP
President

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