Ontario

2192 readers

35 users here now

A place to discuss all the news and events taking place in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Rules

No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn.
No Ads / Spamming.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

Rumblestiltskin@lemmy.ca

She helped thousands get COVID-19 shots. Now she's on the hook for $600K (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 1 week ago by smokebuddy@lemmy.today to c/ontario@lemmy.ca

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.

Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.

Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma's role in boosting local vaccination rates.

About a year later, the doctor said she received notice from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) seeking to recoup the money she had billed for the shots — approximately $600,000, plus around $35,000 in interest.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Billing codes are purposely complicated to deny legitimate claims a lot of the time. Two nearly identical codes will have one covered and another not for whatever reason they come up with. It's why there are entire teams to handle billing at large institutions.

The real question honestly, is if those individuals were authorized to give shots, are there different billing codes that should have been used instead? And if not, why?

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This happened in Canada, not the US, but I agree with the US healthcare issues you mentioned

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

The Canadian Healthcare system isn't that different from the US as much as you all might want to think it is. You just have fewer groups paying, the bullshit complexity built into the system is a near copy of the US.

[–] healthetank@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Canada is the same, just single payer (ie instead of hospitals billing the insurance company, they bill OHIP). There's still complicated codes, though for what it's worth they don't change much, if at all. If you're billing thousands of shots you'd probably want to double check you're using the right codes.