Tag Archives: Patient based funding

Patient-based nonsense

Patient-based health care: Take away the phrase and the Minister of Health’s speeches would be little more than clean white sheets of paper.

There is an air of unreality when you see those trusted with stewardship of our health system using this phrase in new and unusual ways. It’s like somebody sent out a memo: this year is about patient-based care. Attach it to everything you do.

At last week’s Insight Conference on Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care, Miin Alikhan, director of the Health Quality Branch of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, presented on the government funding “reforms,” including patient-based funding.

What is patient-based funding? It’s basically what they are moving the doctors away from — another version of fee for service although the exact mechanics are a bit unclear.

You don’t often associate funding reform with patient-based care. Evidently previous funding models didn’t apply to caring for patients.

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Hospitals to compete on cost as province introduces new funding mechanisms

In March Deb Matthews told the media that 36 hospitals will have their budgets cut by as much as three per cent when this year’s new hospital funding formula rolls out.

This week the Ministry held a technical briefing and remarkably told its labour stakeholders that in year one about 10 per cent of hospitals will see increases in funding no greater than 1.8 per cent and decreases no greater than 1.5 per cent.

They also state that 90 per cent of hospitals will see less than a one per cent difference in their budget allocation, plus or minus.

Back in March 91 hospitals were expected to “benefit” from the new formula. Now the Ministry says only 90 hospitals will participate – small rural and northern hospitals being excluded from the Health Based Activity Model (HBAM).

That’s a big difference.

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