November 20, 2013, President's Letter

November 20, 2013

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Dear Member:

In this letter:

• Allocation is almost complete >>
• The changing primary care landscape >>
• Finding system-wide efficiencies and savings >>
• Physician Compensation Committee work underway >>
• Developing the provincial electronic medical record (EMR) strategy >>

As we move forward with implementing the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) Agreement, I’d like to take a moment to provide you with an update on a few key areas.

Allocation is almost complete

The AMA and the government are in the process of completing and finalizing allocation and the details will be sent soon through a joint-communication piece.

The parties have agreed on a method (also known as a macro-allocation) to distribute the 2.5% to sections on April 1, 2014, that is consistent with discussions at the Fall 2013 Representative Forum (RF). This method will:

• Distribute up to one-third of the funds toward priority (targeted) items.
• Evenly split the remaining money between: addressing the increasing cost of overhead expenses; and providing a provision for sectional allocation equivalents (which has been referred to as full-time equivalent [FTE] in previous allocations).

The AMA and the government are also working on a method (also known as a micro-allocation) that has involved each section to help distribute the funds within each section. One of the issues has to do with reporting time-based codes. We are working with Alberta Health (AH) to better understand the concerns and develop a plan moving forward.

It is important to conclude these discussions this week in order to meet an AH deadline requirement, if we are going to have full implementation by April 1, 2014.

I want to thank everyone involved – including AMA staff, section representatives, AMA committees such as the AMA Compensation Committee and Fees Advisory Committee, and the government – for making an April 2014 allocation possible, particularly with such short timelines.

The changing primary care landscape

As many of you may know, there are lots of things happening at the moment in primary care (e.g., primary care network (PCN) evolution, an alternate compensation model for family physicians).

Both of these projects will have a big impact on the primary care landscape and we are working closely with the Section of General Practice, the Section of Rural Medicine and the PCN Physician Leads Executive to ensure the concerns of primary care physicians are heard and addressed.

We are looking at ways to keep membership informed (e.g., since RF, there have been six newsletters on the topic of primary care, which are posted on the AMA website).

Finding system-wide efficiencies and savings

This component of the AMA Agreement states that we will work with AH and Alberta Health Services (AHS) to identify opportunities for system-wide efficiencies and savings.

One way we are looking at doing this is by participating in the Choosing Wisely^® Canada campaign.

The campaign is based on a similar project in the United States that encourages physicians and patients to talk about medical tests and procedures that may be unnecessary and, in some instances, can cause harm. The campaign supports patients and physicians in making wise choices in care.

In addition, the AMA asked section presidents to provide suggestions about where they thought money could be saved in the health care system. As you can imagine we’ve received lots of suggestions (just over 80)! The challenge will now be determining which ones to move forward on.

Physician Compensation Committee work underway

The Physician Compensation Committee has been established and there has been lots of work by AMA and government staff to determine how best to support the committee.

While we are not in a position to make an announcement about the independent chair yet, I can tell you that the search is underway and there are several strong candidates. Although we are still recruiting a chair, some work (e.g., allocation) has already begun in the interest of moving some initiatives forward in the interim.

Developing the provincial electronic medical record (EMR) strategy

The Provincial Electronic Medical Record Consultation Agreement stipulates that the AMA, AH and AHS will work collaboratively to deliver a recommended provincial EMR strategy to the minister of health by March 31, 2014.

To help make this deadline, a working group has been established to confirm key requirements, explore the issues, challenges and opportunities, and to set out possible future directions of EMRs for consideration.

The provincial Health Information Executive Committee (which reports directly to the minister) will receive an interim progress report from the three groups (AMA, AH and AHS) when it meets in early December.

 

As you can see, there’s lots of work underway and even more that will begin over the coming months. As always, the AMA will continue to keep you informed and engaged as we move forward with building a health care system that puts Patients First^®.

I welcome your comments and thoughts at president@albertadoctors.org (or by commenting below).

Sincerely,

Allan S. Garbutt, PhD, MD, CCFP
President