Doug Ford government paying for-profit clinic more than hospitals for OHIP-covered surgeries, documents show
Discrepancy raises questions about plans to do more surgeries outside of Ontario's public hospitals
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...tals-1.7026926
Premier Doug Ford's government gives a for-profit clinic more funding to perform certain OHIP-covered surgeries than it gives Ontario's public hospitals to perform the same operations, CBC News has learned.
Ontario's government has never before made public the rates it pays a private clinic in Toronto to perform thousands of outpatient day surgeries each year.
Through a freedom of information request, CBC News obtained documents that reveal those funding rates for the first time.
Four senior officials who work in different parts of Ontario's hospital system reviewed the documents, and all four say the rates being paid to the privately owned Don Mills Surgical Unit Ltd. are noticeably higher than what the province provides public hospitals for the same procedures.
That discrepancy raises questions about the government's imminent plans to expand the volume and scope of surgeries performed outside of hospitals, including the potentially lucrative field of hip and knee replacements.
Ford and his health minister have pitched this expansion as a cost-efficient way to get more surgeries done and reduce wait times.
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