Circumventing the Canadian Health System - Part 1

MONTREAL-If, despite what they say, laws were not meant to be broken, in the case of private medical care in Quebec they were meant to be pushed to the brink or so it would appear, experts say, as private and semi-private clinics in and around Montreal find new ways to interpret the province’s health laws in order to bring in the cash.

Quebec is at the forefoot of private health in Canada, and health and legal scholars say this '^bending" of laws is to be expected when a highly visible and vocal for-profit network sits at the margins of a vast and problem-plagued public system Quebec’s medical insurance agency says it has launched investigations into some newly discovered practices that it says might not conform with provincial laws or the Canada Health Act

In one case, a private surgery clinic in Laval seems to have found a way to entice patients to be treated in its environs.

The Critique chirurgical de Laval offered a man who needed bursitis surgery on his shoulder to see a surgeon within two weeks. It would take 18 months to see that same surgeon in an area public hospital. Since he'd be operated on in the private clinic by a surgeon who still participates in the public system (and is paid by the government), the surgeon can't take cash from the patient.

So the patient was invited to join a fitness center, situated in the same building as the clinic, which would act as the "third payer."

They are trying to circumvent the regulation, a health law specialist at the National School of Public Administration, suggests. The clinic is stretching an exception in Quebec’s medical insurance law that allows public physicians to consult for associations or large companies for their members or employees, and be paid directly—by the business or association.

However, if s not clear who would ultimately pay for the operation in the private clinic, in this case, the patient is being enticed to join a fitness gym to participate in this regime an exploitation of a situation of doctor shortage by the medical profession and the investors who support them in the development of these private clinics.