The Ministry of Health sponsored the creation of a physician expert panel, chaired by Dr. Barry Rubin, that is looking at issues regarding self-referral and the appropriate utilization of imaging studies. The IDCA, on behalf of the sector, submitted several documents to the expert panel, highlighting our concerns with the Ministry’s existing and proposed fee schedule changes. The Rubin panel requested that the IDCA attend and present the IHF perspective on these matters, on behalf of the IHF sector. Our presentation occurred just days before the release of the Rubin panel’s interim recommendations. At the meeting, we emphasized the highly regulated nature of the IHF environment. The application of the self-referral guidelines would result in unintended consequences that would detrimentally affect the quality and delivery of community-based services. We left the meeting with an assurance that the panel would not recommend imposing a fee reduction on self-referred studies. Moreover, Dr. Rubin emphasized that any future guidelines should be applied consistently across hospital and community-based providers.
Rubin panel’s interim recommendations is as follows: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/news/bulletin/2012/docs/hb_20120727_1.pdf