No more need for a doctor’s note to be absent from work for up to three days due to a cold. This is one of the examples that arise from Bill 68 which has just been adopted by the Quebec government with the aim of reducing doctors’ paperwork.
The Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, and the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in a press release. The government calculates that the various measures of Bill 68 will free up 600,000 appointment slots per year.
In a parliamentary committee last month, the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) however warned that reducing the burden of insurance forms on doctors will not significantly increase the number of appointments offered. . The president of the FMOQ, Dr Marc-André Amyot said that this will be especially useful to reduce the work overload of doctors and to use “the time slot in a much more relevant and optimal way”.
Among the other measures of Bill 68 which will come into force, the doctor will now be the one who decides on the frequency of seeing a patient with medium or long-term disability. It will no longer be private insurers who will impose visits to doctors for medical follow-up so that the patient can keep their compensation.
Furthermore, people needing technical aids (canes, crutches, etc.) will no longer need medical documentation for reimbursement.
The government is continuing its efforts to give more power to certain health professionals instead of everything going through the doctor. The new law will make it possible to obtain reimbursement from an insurer for the cost of services received from a health or social services professional. The patient will therefore no longer need a doctor’s prescription to be reimbursed for a visit to a physiotherapist, among other things.
“Currently, doctors devote too much of their time to administrative tasks, to the detriment of their primary mission: caring for their patients. Reducing paperwork related to medical appointments for private insurers and employers is an important element in successfully improving access to health care,” Minister Dubé commented in a press release.
His colleague, Minister Boulet, recognized that Quebecers wait too long to see a doctor. “The adoption of this bill sends a strong message: we are committed to improving access to medical care, supporting our doctors and providing everyone with the best possible care. The main addition of this bill is undoubtedly the single form, intended to reduce the administrative burden on doctors by simplifying and standardizing the documents they must complete,” he declared in writing.
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