Illegal medicare billing:
Nurses' case goes to BC Supreme Court on Friday (Sept. 7)
The BC Nurses'Union will be in BC Supreme Court on Friday (September 7) in its
on-going legal action
against the provincial government for failing to enforce the laws of medicare.
The union is seeking a Court order requiring the government to protect patients from extra billing and user fees that are being charged by private clinics and medical specialists for services covered by medicare.
The legal action is scheduled to begin at 9:45 am at the BC Supreme Court in downtown Vancouver.
The union launched the action in April 2005 and filed a
revised petition
with the Court in December 2006. Legal papers include information from a Williams Lake woman who was offered a quick appointment last year for a fee of $350 at the office of a neurological specialist, as an alternative to waiting for her scheduled appointment with the same specialist in the same office in February 2008.
Other affidavits are from patients who were forced to pay large facility fees for medically necessary operations at Lower Mainland private surgical clinics. In most cases the surgeon was paid for the service by the province's Medical Services Plan, while the patient was billed a facility fee by the clinic.
The BC Medicare Protection Act prohibits the provincial Medical Services Plan from paying a doctor
to treat a patient if the patient is also charged additional fees for the service.
"The provincial government has been turning a blind eye to these violations for several years and capitulating to pressures from promoters of private health care," says BCNU President Debra McPherson. "It's time they were called to account and forced to put a stop to them."
The provincial government has responded to the action with legal arguments disputing the union’s right to bring the matter to the Court. Those arguments will be heard on Friday.
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