Whereas British Columbians are continuing to struggle to access primary care and establish relationships with a family doctor despite a Provincial commitment to a new primary care network model in 2018; And whereas the Province of British Columbia offers limited alternatives with limited funding to the fee for service model for physician compensation: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province of BC to consider, implement and adequately fund alternative physician compensation models to replace the fee for service model to better support continuity of care and encourage doctors to practice family medicine.
Ministry of Health The Ministry of Health Ministry is focused on increasing access to team-based quality, comprehensive, culturally safe, and person-and-family-centered primary care services for people across BC. The primary care strategy is working to support and build out longitudinal full-service family practice as well as urgent and episodic primary care services as the foundation of the health care system. The Ministry collaborates with family physicians and the Doctors of BC through several provincial, regional, and local tables, to support a sustainable and comprehensive primary care system in the Interior region and in the rest of the province. The long-standing, complex, and critical issues identified are well known and inform the discussions and work at these tables. The Province and the Doctors of BC recently announced a new tentative Physician Master Agreement as well as a new payment model for longitudinal family practice. The new payment model, co-developed by Doctors of BC, BC Family Doctors and the Province, will be available to family doctors beginning February 2023. It provides another option for family doctors that marks a departure from the fee-for-service model under which doctors are paid based primarily on the number of patients they see in a day. The new model takes into account factors including: - the time a doctor spends with a patient; - the number of patients a doctor sees in a day; - the number of patients a doctor supports through their office; - the complexity of the issues a patient is facing; and - administrative costs currently paid directly by family doctors. The new payment model provides a more equitable payment for the work of family doctors and better recognizes their value in providing full-service primary care to patients. Full-service family doctors are those who work in communities to provide ongoing primary-care services to their patients. It will help maintain their business autonomy and give them more flexibility to create the kind of practice that works best for them and their patients. The payment model will be available starting in February 2023. In addition to the above, in August 2022 the Ministry launched a suite of incentives to support new and early career family physicians seeking to work in longitudinal family practice. The incentives include a competitive service contract rate with additional overhead, a signing bonus and debt relief payments. Between August and November 84 new physicians have signed into this incentive program. Additionally, the Ministry and Doctors of BC provided 118 million in short-term stabilization funding to support family physicians and clinics around the province while the new payment model referenced above was under development. The Ministry will continue working collaboratively with Doctors of BC to address issues of concern to family physicians, and more broadly, will continue moving forward with our provincial team-based primary care strategy. We thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback on this important issue.