B.C. health care advocates are calling on the provincial government to investigate the full extent of extra billing at private clinics after a Supreme Court case set to rule on the matter was postponed earlier this month.
Members of the BC Health Coalition and Canadian Doctors for Medicare were scheduled to rally in front of Cambie Surgery Centre at 10:30 a.m. Monday (September 29) to protest against the private clinic.
“The concept of our public health care system is built on the very Canadian value of equity,” Edith MacHattie, co-chairwoman of the BC Health Coalition, told Business in Vancouver.
“Extra billing absolutely threatens the sustainability of our health care system by further overextending our health care budget.”
Extra billing occurs when private clinics charge patients additional fees after accepting money from the government to provide routine services.
The provincial government and Dr. Brian Day, CEO of Cambie Surgeries Corporation, were set to face off in B.C. Supreme Court in early September before the lawsuit was given an adjournment.
A 2012 audit from the Medical Services Commission revealed evidence Day’s clinics, the Cambie Surgery Centre and the Specialist Referral Clinic, were engaged in extra billing.
The audit examined a 10-month period at the clinics, but MacHattie said the coalition wants the government to investigate the full extent of these practices since the clinics opened their doors.
The coalition is also calling on Day to reimburse all his patients for extra billing and agree to comply with B.C.’s Medicare Protection Act.
Day told Business in Vancouver earlier this month he believes the B.C. law is illegal as it conflicts with Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, guaranteeing people “life, liberty and security of the person.” He said his legal challenge is based on the idea placing patients on wait lists causes suffering.
Day added the ongoing legal proceedings are draining him of the profits his clinics make.
With files from Glen Korstrom
