Content area
Full text
Malpractice insurance fees are going up in most parts of Canada. It's not something physicians are happy about, but many believe it simply completes a triangle of inevitable things that also includes death and taxes.
At least that's how Dr. Trina Larsen Soles, a family physician practising in Golden, B.C., sees it. Having served as a rural representative during fee negotiations that resulted in a ratified master agreement in B.C. in December, she said she expects her Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) fee to double this year.
With the exception of Quebec, where fees are expected to remain stable, a doubling of overall fees is what most physicians across Canada are facing.
"I think the general reaction of my colleagues has been unhappy resignation," said Dr. Larsen Soles. "We need good liability coverage to practise, and these are signs of the times."
According to the CMPA's fee schedule, roughly 91,000-or more than 95%-of physicians in Canada pay the association's annual fees, ranging from $612 for relatively uncommon work such as teaching abroad (with no patient contact) to $74,928 for obstetrics (with or without gynecology) in Ontario. The key, however, is what physicians actually pay out-of-pocket after provincial governments reimburse them for a portion of the total fee doctors send to the CMPA.
The fees protect physicians from the estimated 850 to 900 new civil actions that occur each year; that's in addition to ongoing legal actions that last a median of about 39 months. Approximately 10% of legal actions will ultimately go to trial and take anywhere from five to nine years to resolve....