The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is changing the way it funds hospitals for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on April 1. The new funding formula is intended to improve efficiency. However, many hospitals are unprepared for the change. We spoke with hospital executives and other experts to better understand what is …
A recent report describes how Canada’s healthcare system performs compared to 13 other countries. Canada ranked at the bottom in access to care and use of electronic health records, and in the middle regarding costs and health outcomes. Thirty-eight percent of Canadians felt the system works well, 51% thought it needs fundamental change, and 10% believed …
In my first post, “The Easy Lifting Has Already Been Done”, I noted some of the barriers to change in the health care system. I will write further about barriers and possible solutions. However, first I need to take one step back. That step is to address the necessity of change in how we deliver …
The challenges facing the health care system are massive and despite some occasional messages to the contrary, the overwhelming opinion is that the health care system is not sustainable. Despite the mounting chorus, internal and external, telling us that the system isn’t sustainable, surprisingly little has been done. We have been nibbling around the edges …
A recent report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information provides information about the major drivers of health care costs in the past decade, which include growing salaries for health care workers and greater intensity of treatment. The report suggests that the aging population is not a major contributor to rising health care costs. These findings clash …
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) does not cover all health services that can be provided by a doctor. These “uninsured” services include telephone renewal of prescriptions, writing sick notes for work or school and transferring medical records. Doctors can offer patients the option of paying for a set of uninsured services with a single …
With the expiry of the Health Accord in 2014 looming, the debate about the role of the federal government in paying for health care is once again taking centre stage. The School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto hosted a roundtable on the future of how the federal government transfers …
Most of Ontario’s doctors bill the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for their services on a “fee for service” basis. The amount doctors are paid for each service is established through negotiations between the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Medical Association. Although fees are reviewed every few years, there is disagreement about …
The frequency of obesity has skyrocketed across Canada, and its treatment is a major challenge to the health care system. Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for obesity that appears to be good value for money. Although Ontario is expanding bariatric surgery capacity, some are concerned that capacity remains below current needs. What is bariatric …
It is inaccurate to say that Canada has an entirely publicly funded health care system. While often described as a publicly-funded system, only about 70% of health care costs are paid for publicly, with the remaining 30% paid for privately. In Ontario, medically necessary hospital and physician costs are entirely covered by the public health care system. …
The Canada Health Act includes public coverage of services provided in hospitals and by doctors, but not prescription medications taken outside of hospital. Most provincial drug plans do provide some public coverage, but many Canadians lack drug coverage. In the last 25 years, prescription medications have become both more important and more expensive. Bringing prescription …
In many provinces across Canada the authority and governance of health care has been moved to regional authorities, based on the belief that local authorities can better integrate and coordinate services, and contain costs. Ontario created 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) in 2006, with the mandate to plan, fund and integrate health care services …
Midwives provide high quality care for normal, low risk pregnancy and child birth, but provide this care to relatively few women in Ontario. The demand for midwifery services is outstripping capacity. The philosophy and actual practice of care provided by midwives and obstetricians is different. Obstetricians deliver many more babies, but obstetrician-led care is more …
Many politicians, doctors and the public believe that aging of the population is the main cause of increased health care costs. If this is true, this paints an exceptionally worrying picture about the sustainability of health care in the future. However, somewhat surprisingly, the majority of researchers don’t believe that aging plays a major role …
The 2004 Health Accord agreed to a total transfer of $41 billion of federal money to the provinces and territories for health care over a ten year period. This transfer ends in 2014 when the accord expires. The legacy of the Health Accord is mixed. There have been improvements in wait times for some operations …
Polls suggest that health care is the most important issue to Canadians in the upcoming federal election. However, in Canada, health care delivery is largely the responsibility of the provinces and territories. The 2004 Health Accord invested $41 billion of federal dollars in health. What were the outcomes of this federal investment in health? History …
The Centre for Innovation in Complex Care hosted a debate on April 8, 2011 focused on the resolution that “the single most important step in improving hospital quality is having physicians paid and employed by hospitals.” Healthydebate.ca covered this issue on April 6, with a story on How Hospital Doctors Be Paid? At the debate, …
Doctors are a significant portion of the costs for the health care system. In 2009, almost a quarter of Ontario’s health care budget was spent on paying doctors. Most doctors who work in hospitals are not paid by the hospital directly, but by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, which pays doctors for each procedure and clinical service. …
The Ontario Health Quality council reported in 2010 that wait times for a long-term care bed in Ontario have tripled since 2005. A substantial number of people who are waiting for long-term care – and some who are currently in long-term care – could be cared for at home or in “assisted living” facilities …
Blood glucose test strips are the third most expensive cost for the Ontario Public Drug Program. A study released in 2009 suggests that the Ontario government is unnecessarily spending between $19 and $42 million per year on glucose test strips. However, no changes have yet been made to reduce the use of blood glucose test …