B.C. government to provide update on new payment model for family doctors

The B.C. government is expected to give an update on its new payment model that was introduced to help stabilize family physician practices and clinics.

B.C.’s health minister, Adrian Dix, will be providing an update Wednesday on how the model has been implemented and if any issues have arisen.

Global News will be holding a livestream of the press conference, which is expected to begin at 1 p.m., in this article.

In October 2022, the government introduced a new payment model in an attempt to retain family doctors and attract new ones.

The new system moves away from the fee-for-service model and takes into account factors including the time a doctor spends with a patient, the number of patients a doctor sees in a day and the number of total patients a doctor supports through their office.

It’s built around a full-time equivalent, full-service family physician providing 1,680 hours, seeing 1,250 patients of average complexity and having 5,000 encounters/visits each year.

Based on these targets, doctors will earn $385,000, up from an average of $250,000.

The minimum to be eligible for the new model is to work one day per week, and pay will reflect the number of days worked per week.

The new model, co-developed by Doctors of BC, BC Family Doctors and the provincial government, will be available as of February. Family physicians can choose to continue with the current model or opt into the new one.

The provincial government and Doctors of BC also provided a $118-million short-term fund to help stabilize struggling family doctors in August 2022.

The August announcement was the government’s first step in trying to address the critical issue of the lack of family doctors within the province.

The funding is part one of what the province is describing as a “transformational” multi-phased approach to “help protect and improve B.C.͛s health-care system.”

The new funding includes $75 million from the B.C. Ministry of Health and $43 million from the General Practices Services Committee, a collaborative committee co-chaired by the ministry and Doctors of BC that was established through the physician master agreement.

The funding is available to family doctors who provide ongoing services to patients and pay overhead costs. Primary care clinics, including walk-in clinics, committing to remaining open and maintaining consistent clinic hours can also apply for funding on behalf of the clinic and its doctors.

More to come…