The province’s “fee for service” model for family physicians is antiquated and is hindering recruitment efforts as more and more patients find themselves without the service of a family doctor.
That’s according to the past president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, Dr. Lynette Powell.
Under the current system, doctors are paid per visit which Dr. Dawn Turner, who has a family practice in Grand Falls-Windsor, says prevents doctors from spending the time necessary to get to know their patients and their overall health.
She and her husband returned to Newfoundland and Labrador to set up a family practice in this province after years practicing in Ontario where they worked under a blended capitation model.
Under fee for service, a doctor might try to see as many patients as possible to ensure they made enough to pay their expenses and staff. Under the blended capitation model, she got paid for the overall number of patients in her practice whether she saw them or not, and was paid a bit more when she saw them. That she says allowed her to take the time with each patient that she wanted to take.
NLMA Past President Dr. Lynette Powell says the fee for service model was developed at a time when physicians were seeing less chronic illness and patients weren’t as sick.
Over time, most other provinces have moved to other payment models to allow physicians to spend more time with their patients.