Thread by @UofA007MD

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall Most of us in AB are not on salary. Some are, and others have a hybrid arrangement. Those of us paid by fee-for-service submit billing claims to AB Health for each patient seen, which they'll only pay if the PHN (healthcare #) is valid.

There's an agreement btwn most of the...1/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...provinces whereby they reimburse each other for services provided to their residents in another province. Usually it works fairly well. For ABns w/o valid coverage, we used to be able to submit a "good faith" claim, but now we have to provide that care for free.

If I...2/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...have a busy shift in my rural ER, I make good $. If it's a slow day at the ER, I make much less $. And as a rural doc who works both hospital and clinic, I still have overhead costs at the clinic when I'm not there. The lease, staff wages, utilities, etc don't stop just...3/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...b/c I'm working at the hospital. Those costs are not paid for us, we pay them out of the billing claims submitted to AB Health, which are gross revenue not net personal income.

The same is true for specialists who have clinics in the community and provide coverage at an...4/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...urban hospital.

So when I spend hours providing emergency care for which I can't be paid b/c the patient doesn't have valid coverage, I can potentially lose money for the day's work, since i still have fixed costs to pay at the clinic.

I still provide that emergency...5/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...care, as would any of my colleagues, b/c it's the ethical and compassionate thing to do, even if it wasn't legally mandated. But being expected to work for free, or potentially even at a loss, is not typical in most other lines of work.

I still love practicing medicine, ...6/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...and AB has been my home since I was a baby, but the UCP and their cuts are making it increasingly difficult to keep our practices financially viable. Which appears to be their goal, as far as I can tell. I don't want to leave AB, and by doing so pave the way for them to...7/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...privatize health care, but some of my colleagues have already had to make difficult decisions and more will likely follow. My clinic has had to lay off staff and we're still operating in the red despite that. I'll continue fighting for our health care system, as will my...8/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...colleagues at @Albertadoctors, but there's a limit to how much personal debt ppl are willing to take on to keep practicing in a province where the gov't is actively bullying and smearing us at every turn.

All the UCP has to do to resolve this is to return to the table...9/

@sarahmavrophoto @Albertadoctors @FionaMattatall ...and negotiate in good faith, or agree to arbitration, but they refuse. Docs understand the fiscal reality in AB, and we offered pay cuts which gov't turned down. We just want to have input into the cuts, so it can be done w/o negatively affecting patient care.

/end rant 😕