Health Minister Paul Merriman. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM file photo)

By CKOM News

PRIVATE CARE

Merriman ‘disappointed’ after feds penalize Sask. for private MRI and CT scans

Mar 13, 2023 | 4:22 PM

Ottawa has blindsided Saskatchewan by clawing back more than $740,000 in health transfers.

The federal government accused the province of misusing the Canada Health Act by charging for services the feds claim should be free.

“We’re very disappointed that Ottawa has decided to claw money back after just making a huge announcement nationally just four weeks ago,” Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman told Gormley on Monday. “When we met with … ministers (Jean-Yves) Duclos and (Dominic) LeBlanc, nothing of this was mentioned to us.”

Merriman said the main issue was the province’s two-for-one MRI and CT scan system.

“When a patient goes in and purchases a private MRI, they are in essence paying for a second person to be able to get a scan at the private clinic from the public waitlist,” he said. “This is something we’ve been doing successfully in (the) province.”

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According to Merriman, the province has done more than 14,000 of these scans since 2016.

He said private scans are important for helping reduce the surgical backlog and for getting people the information they need.

Even though the province has faced threats of clawbacks to health transfers in the past, Merriman said the federal government has never followed through with them.

“We keep plugging along, getting those scans done for the people of Saskatchewan,” he added.

The majority of them have been paid for by the provincial government, Merriman said.

“Over $140 million worth of taxpayer dollars goes into those scans. This represents 0.05 per cent of the total scans that are done in (the) province,” the health minister said.

Even though the amount that was clawed back seems small, Merriman said it’s important to get those scans done in a certain amount of time to be able to make sure the patient is able to get diagnostic information and proceed with treatment.

Allowing people to opt for scans in the private system has been reducing wait times for diagnostic scans.

“Just like our private surgeries do … this takes the pressure off the public system … They’re completely separate from the hospital system (and) they’re very efficient in moving patients through,” Merriman said. “It’s something that we feel very strongly that we need to continue.”

Merriman stressed provinces and territories need to have all the tools available to them to be able to manage issues in their health-care systems.

As for what clawing back actually means, he said the money will be coming from the transfers that were announced in February.

“I think it’s coming off in one lump sum as far as I know … My understanding is it’s now going to be ($60.25 million) and change, which is ridiculous,” Merriman added.

To legally determine whether the province’s approach to diagnostic scans actually goes against the Canada Health Act, Merriman said the province’s lawyers will have a look at it.

“(The Canada Health Act) hasn’t been updated for a while, when private two-for-one scans came in. We need to make sure that the language of the (Canada) Health Act is keeping up with the technology and the advancements in health care, which is changing almost on an annual basis,” he said.

Merriman said he expects provincial and territorial leaders to meet and discuss the topic.

He also said there will be a meeting with Bronwyn Eyre, the province’s justice minister and attorney general, later this week to determine whether health care could be included as an exclusively provincial jurisdiction in the Saskatchewan First Act.