The days of Quebecers needing a note from their family doctor to be reimbursed for medical treatments may soon come to an end.
Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Wednesday he will table a bill that would prohibit insurance companies and employers from requiring doctor’s notes to submit reimbursement requests for health treatments.
If the bill is adopted, patients will no longer have to request a doctor’s note to be reimbursed for a consultation with a health-care professional, like a physiotherapist or massage therapist or after getting orthopedic equipment such as crutches or a cane.
The new measure would apply to everyone in Quebec, regardless of their insurance company, a spokesperson for the health minister confirmed.
Family doctors have been saying they spend too much time filling out forms for private insurers. By freeing doctors from paperwork, Dubé says they will be able to spend more time seeing patients.
Radio-Canada reported last March that many family doctors who wanted the requirement to be abolished said administrative paperwork for insurers took up a quarter of their time. On top of that, patients without access to a family doctor who underwent treatments said they wouldn’t know where to file their health claims.
In a statement sent Wednesday, Quebec’s college of physicians — the Collège des médecins du Québec — welcomed the measure, agreeing that the bill would reduce paperwork.
Last February, Quebec implemented similar measures for patients compensated by the province’s workplace health and safety board, the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST).
In those cases, the government already allows doctors to determine the number of follow-up consultations needed based on their availability and the state of the worker’s health.
Freeing up appointments
At the National Assembly, Dubé said that, based on preliminary information, he estimates 300,000 to 500,000 additional medical appointments would become available annually.
But physicians and opposition party leaders worry that Dubé is blowing the announcement out of proportion.
Dr. Pascal Renaud, the president of the Association des Médecins Omnipraticiens de Québec, says it is too early to say the bill would cut down the time doctors spend on paperwork at the rate Dubé is suggesting.
“Twenty-five per cent of the time we’re doing paperwork it isn’t only for insurance forms,” Renaud said, noting there are many other provincial and federal government forms that physicians are required to fill out.
Family doctors in Quebec say they’re using a lot of time filling up insurance paperwork and that time could be served caring for patients.
He added that it’s been two years that doctors have been calling on the minister to address the abundance of paperwork, but “even late good news is good news.”
Urging the health minister to “come back with results,” the Parti Québécois MNA for Matane-Matapédia Pascal Bérubé pointed to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) promising in 2018 that Quebecers would wait at most 90 minutes to see a doctor.
“I don’t believe them,” Bérubé said. “With the CAQ and Mr. Dubé, it’s all about intentions and not about results.”
Bérubé stressed that waiting times in Quebec emergencies rooms have increased. The occupancy rates of hospitals in Châteauguay, Mont-Laurier and Saint-Jérôme were 200 per cent on Wednesday, he said.
Québec Solidaire MNA Christine Labrie and Liberal MNA Frédéric Beauchemin say the bill would help improve doctors’ productivity, with Labrie saying she hopes patients will be able to avoid “useless consultations.”
Currently, a worker on medium or long-term sick leave must return to see their family doctor regularly to maintain their compensation.
For example, the recovery time for a patient on sick leave for a fracture is usually two months. But some employers’ insurance plans require patients to see their doctor every three weeks.Once the bill is adopted, family doctors will determine the frequency of the consultations based on their clinical judgment, rather than the employer or insurer.
In an interview with Radio-Canada’s Tout un matin, Dubé said he and Labour Minister Jean Boulet would continue working on the bill over the summer. He said they hope to table it by the start of the session in the fall.