Doctors across Vancouver Island are looking for fair compensation from the province.
Under the new fee schedule, doctors are being paid $40/15 minutes (for a maximum of 90 minutes) to carry out medically assisted death procedures on gravely ill patients.
Dr. Stefanie Green, President of the Canadian Association of MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) Assessors and Providers, says this is causing significant financial hardship for physicians across the Island.
However, she notes there’s a simple solution.
“We just need to look to our other colleagues in Alberta and Manitoba: You pay the physician on a per time basis, a certain fee per 15 minutes.
However long it takes to the job properly, that’s what you bill for.”
Green calls the new fee guidelines unfair, as a doctor giving a medically assisted death procedure can make half as much as a typical physician would, something she admits could hamper availability and quality of care.
