Vancouver Province (March 10, 2009)
B.C., private clinics do battle
By Pamela Fayerman

VANCOUVER — The province has accused private medical centres of “unlawful billing practices” and refusing access to records that would show whether they were breaking the law.

The government’s contentions are in respose to a lawsuit by the private centres challenging laws that impede access to such clinics.

In a 22-page court document consisting of a statement of defence and a counterclaim, the health minister, attorney general and Medical Services Commission of B.C. denied the clinic operators’ claims that patients have a constitutional guarantee of access to medical care in the private or public systems.

“There is no free-standing constitutional right to health care,” the government’s statement of defence said in contending that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not protect patients who must wait long periods of time for care.

The counterclaim against the Cambie Surgery Centre and the Specialist Referral Clinic, where patients pay to get expedited treatment, said the government has “reason to believe” that patients have paid doctors directly for insured services covered by the public medical plan, in violation of provincial statutes that forbid such extra billing.

“Cambie and the SRC have charged patients directly or indirectly for services like surgery, overnight stays, facility fees, consultations, surgeon’s fees, anesthetic fees,” the government alleged.

The countersuit said the Medical Services Commission notified Cambie that it intended to do an audit of its records, but inspectors were refused access to information that would allow the commission to determine if laws had been breached.

“Cambie and the SRC have refused to permit the inspectors to enter their premises and inspect their records . . . or to otherwise co-operate with the inspectors.”

The parties are asking B.C. Supreme Court to issue a warrant authorizing inspectors to enter the centres to inspect records and for an injunction restraining Cambie and the SRC from “hindering, molesting or interfering” with inspectors.

Dr. Brian Day, the orthopedic surgeon who is co-owner of the Cambie and SRC, said about 5,000 private-paying surgical cases are done each year across the province, at an average cost of $3,000 per case.

Day said he is certain the B.C. courts will rule the same as the Supreme Court of Canada did in 2005 when it struck down Quebec’s outright ban on private insurance for patients who are waiting too long for surgery.

“The government’s court documents completely ignore the fact that the highest court has already ruled on this issue when it said you can’t stop people from paying to get off a wait list. There are people who wait a year to see a specialist and then another year to get their surgery,” said Day, adding that many of those individuals will testify at a trial, whenever that occurs.