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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

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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.

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[–] smokebuddy@lemmy.today 16 points 1 week ago (6 children)

From the article it doesn't seem like anything fraudulent happened here. So many corporations used the government handouts in ways that actually were fraud and weren't punished like this. In Sudbury, our Chief Medical Officer billed a million dollars of overtime over the two pandemic years, and that was somehow okay.

Unless I'm missing something the outrage seems justified. Doug really is "siding with the doctors and nurses" eh

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (5 children)

"This doctor billed the Ministry for over 23,000 vaccines over 5 days, incorrectly billing the Ministry for $630,000, 21 times their eligible payments."

Those vaccines were not administered by her or her staff, but by local medical students, and not in her office, both of which apparently go against billing codes.

I'm not sure I agree with seizure of all funds here, and the vaccine clinics did good, but I think the doctor intended to misuse billing codes and I understand why the Ministry wants some money back. There should have been more communication and compromise earlier on. Like, if a doctor bills the province for $100,000 for a day's services that should raise a flag

[–] healthetank@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Jensen said the ministry is also investigating a claim that Ma paid volunteers "20% of the total claim and pocketed the remaining amount." However, the ministry would not provide further details about the allegation.

I mean this part sounds sketchy to me. Are you allowed to pay volunteers?

I feel like asking her to account for the cost is not ridiculous. She deserves to be paid for the work she says went into it, including training and organizing, but is that $600,000 worth?

That being said them reaching for this bulletin they provided seems like a stretch. Like the article says, if they had specifically asked for the bulletin to be waived during COVID, I'm sure the govt would have waived it, so that part feels like a big reach.

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