AMNews: Oct. 24/31, 2005. Canadian tide turns as residents return home ... American Medical News

AMNews: Oct. 24/31, 2005. Canadian tide turns as residents return home ... American Medical News

Experts say an improving climate for physicians in Canada and an increasingly hostile one in the United States are driving the change.
By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Oct. 24/31, 2005.
Deepening administrative burdens from managed care insurers and rising medical liability rates are some of the reasons more of Dr. Warner's Canadian colleagues are returning home after training or practicing in the United States.
The shift also is attributed to the Canadian government's efforts to reinvest in upgrades, such as new operating rooms, under the single-payer system. In some provinces, physicians are being offered higher reimbursements. All of this is to stem a growing shortage of doctors and increase access to quality care. Such stability follows deep cutbacks in Canada's reimbursement and health care infrastructure during the 1980s and 1990s.
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Recent surveys from the Medical Group Management Assn. showed that physician pay is flat or declining in many specialties. Canadian salary figures were not available at press time, although CIHI data indicate that Canadian physicians have average billings about 25% less than their U.S. colleagues.
But doctors in Canada do not have the paperwork of multiple insurers or the steep increases in liability insurance premiums. In Ontario, considered a high-risk province, an ob-gyn would pay the equivalent of $65,000 for coverage, while in Florida, also considered high-risk, insurance would cost $277,000. Liability costs are increasing in Canada, though they're blunted by a tort-based compensation system, with compensation limited to cases in which fault is proven or settlement is made.

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