Ontario's Premier and Minister of Health issue warnings to controversial for-profit clinic.
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Don Copeman founder Copeman Healthcare Clinics |
Ottawa (Feb. 3, 2006) - In what is turning out to be a very bad week for the Copeman Clinic both Ontario's Premier and Minister of Health have warned that the company could be subject to large fines if it charges fees to provide access to provincially insured services.
Health Minister George Smitherman told reporters that "We have a law in Ontario that says we're not going to stand idly by and see patients charged a fee in order to be able to access an insured service."
Clinic founder Don Copeman met with Ontario's Deputy Minister of Health on February 2nd to discuss the proposed opening of three clinics in Ontario. According to Smitherman it was during this meeting that a warning was issued to the company.
Under Ontario's Bill 8, companies can be fined $25,000 for each patient charged a fee to access provincially insured health services - individuals can face $10,000 in fines.
Premier Dalton McGuinty stated that the province "will do whatever we are bound to do in keeping with both the Canada Health Act and our own Bill 8."
Copeman, responding to criticism in British Columbia has offered to change the clinic fee structure to do away with the controversial introduction fee. In a bit of sleight of hand the clinic will roll the initial enrolment fee of $1,200 into the first annual fee of $2,300.
Ontario's law allows annual fees only for those services that are not covered by the province's health system. The Copeman Clinics literature claims that the annual fee does not allow patients to jump the queue and that the fee only covers non-insured services. Critics of the Clinic strongly differ on this point.
BC's Opposition Health Critic David Cubberley sees the Copeman Clinic as "setting a dangerous precedent.”
“Charging patients a fee for faster and better access to medically insured treatment is something to be worried about,” he said.
Much of Copeman's problems arose this week in response to the release of a legal opinion commissioned by the Ontario Health Coalition. The Sack, Goldblatt, Mitchell report prompted the government of BC and Ontario to publicly issue warnings to the clinic.
It remains to be seen whether the Copeman Clinic's attempts to hide the enrolment fee will satisfy the BC government and whether the annual fee will be seen as violating Ontario's Bill 8. NUPGE
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