It's been almost a full year since Quebec banned charging ancillary fees for medical services, but patients are still paying for administrative fees and certain tests, according to a clinic in Pointe-St-Charles that set up a registry to monitor the fees charged to patients.
“In this regard, the problem remains unresolved," said Élise-Mercier Gouin, member of the Pointe-St-Charles Community Clinic’s Right to Health Committee.
According to the committee, preliminary analysis of the data compiled from its monitoring registry shows "the billing in medical clinics for drugs and accessory fees has practically disappeared."
However, it says that administrative fees, charged to fill out forms or for copies of medical files, continue to rise.
Many patients were also charged "exorbitant amounts" for various eye examinations, often not covered by the Régie de l’assurance-maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
"It is impossible to establish whether these particular tests, which are done as a preventive measure or which precede cataract surgery, are necessary,” Gouin said in a statement.
The clinic's survey indicates, in half the cases, it cost patients more than $100 out of pocket. Among those charged for eye exams, 20 per cent reported having to pay over $500.
Among other things, the clinic group recommends for the government to better control administrative costs and force clinics to no longer charge patients for completing government forms. It also says it wants RAMQ to cover more eye exams to prevent the patient from paying them out of pocket.
Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette’s ban on ancillary fees went into effect on Jan. 26, 2017.
Before they were abolished, those fees—for colonoscopies, mammograms and anesthesia products, among other things—were billed with greatly varying prices, depending on the healthcare centre.
—with files from La Presse Canadienne