200$ per hour for meetings

Photo courtesy
Only physicians who participate in the meetings paid a premium and since 2014. All other health professionals sitting around the table, just their hourly wage.

Eric Yvan Lemay

Monday, march 5, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Monday, march 5, 2018 01:00

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Doctors in quebec have affected more than 111 million dollars since three years of age to participate in meetings and committees for which they are paid up to 200 $ an hour.

These “premium meeting” have been created in 2013 in the wake of the compensation increases granted to physicians.

Unlike them, the other professionals around the table are not entitled to any bonus and must satisfy themselves as to their hourly wage, which is much lower.

These benefits are in addition to other premiums revealed by our Bureau of investigation in the last few weeks :

• Premiums attendance of $ 105 per hour for the surgeons who arrive before 8 a.m. in the morning in the operating room.
• The “pass cover” of 65,95 $ for internists who put gloves and a mask when visiting patients in isolation.

The “premium meeting” were negotiated by the former minister Réjean Hébert and the current minister of Health, Gaétan Barrette, who was then at the head of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ).

Photo courtesy

Gaétan Barrette

Minister of Health

They have even substantially increased in three years. For the doctors specialists, they are well past $ 150 an hour at the beginning of 2014 to 175 $ in 2015 and $ 200 per hour by 2016.

“Paid for dinner “

There are two types of bonuses meeting.

First, both specialists and general practitioners may claim a premium when they participate in meetings that bring together many health professionals to discuss patient records.

Some of these meetings take place over the lunch hour. “It is not given to everyone to be paid for dinner “, says a doctor who has the right to this bonus.

74 committees

A second type of “premium meeting” applies only to specialists. They can claim $ 200 an hour for a series of 74 committees gathered under the term ‘ medico-administrative “.

Library committee, complaints committee, committee of management of beds, allocation of scholarships ; anything goes.

The ministry said that the money will be used to involve more physicians to these various committees.

“These remuneration arrangements have been put in place to foster the participation of physicians in the governance and performance of the health network as well as in the hospital organisation “, indicates the door Marie-Claude Lacasse by e-mail.

The 2 types of “premium meeting”

1. Multidisciplinary meetings

Meet a doctor or doctors with at least two other professionals, such as nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists, etc

For specialist doctors

• Each specialist now has the right to 200 $ an hour. It must be present for a minimum of 60 minutes, otherwise it is not paid. If the meeting lasts longer, he is entitled to $ 50 per additional 15 minutes.
• A specialist may not claim more than 40 hours of multidisciplinary meetings per year. A limit is also set at 1: 45 p.m. per day.

For general

Each gp now has the right to 23,78 $ for every 15 minutes.

There is no claim maximum per year in the case of general practitioners. This premium can also be charged when the gp discusses with the patient’s loved ones.

2. Activities medical-administrative

Applies to physicians who participate in one or the other of the 74 committees are listed in the manual billing.

• Each doctor now has the right to 200 $ an hour.
• A maximum number of hours per year has been established depending on the type of committee. A physician may not claim more than 3.5 hours per day for committee meetings.

Some examples of committees are paid $ 200 per hour

• Review committee of the securities
• Discipline committee
• Users committee
• Awarding of the scholarships
• Committee records/archives
• The management committee of central appointments
• Committee of resuscitation
• Committee on the quality of the triage in the emergency

One-quarter of what affect the doctors

Even if they are also health professionals, the pharmacists who participate in meetings or committees of their establishment are not paid any premium in contrast to doctors.

“No, there is no specific amount,” says the executive director of the pharmacists Association of health facilities of Quebec, Linda Vaillant.

Photo courtesy

Linda Vaillant

Pharmacists Association

Its members are only entitled to their hourly wage at these meetings, which range from 39,92 $ 50,41 $. It is therefore possible to say that in the best of cases, the pharmacists are only in the quarter of the amount paid to medical specialists who sit at the same table.

The situation is similar for nurses and other health professionals who participate in the meetings.

Not paid in cash

Even more surprising, the pharmacists who participate in the meetings by making the extra time do not have the right to claim these hours in money.

They need to see those extra hours in a time bank, except for rare special permissions.

Linda Stout is the surprise of what have obtained the doctors, all the more that the negotiations of pharmacists has been protracted since 2015.

An agreement-in-principle recently intervened. Ironically, the government owes them money for the past years as was the case for medical specialists.

Amounts paid per year for meetings and committees

2014-2015: $35.6 Million

2015-2016: $37.7 Million

2016-2017: $38.2 Million

► Total: 111.3 Million,$