Family physicians should stop performing medical assessments for the homologation of a protection mandate (formerly called a mandate of incapacity). This is what the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) has been recommending to its members since Tuesday. The union thus wishes to put an end to an “inequity” between patients.
Quebecers are indeed not all equal when it comes to obtaining a medical evaluation to have a protection mandate homologated. This medical assessment service is covered by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) when it is carried out by medical specialists. The cost of this act is $633 in the case of guardianship, curatorship or homologation of mandate.
The situation is quite different for family physicians. The latter receive compensation of $483.75 for a medical assessment relating to tutorship or curatorship. Remuneration is however nil in the event of homologation of a protection mandate.
Until Tuesday, the FMOQ suggested that its members bill the patient $480 for the medical evaluation intended for the homologation of a mandate. She hoped that the government would accept that its members should also be paid by the RAMQ. The discussions, which began two years ago, did not succeed, according to its president, the Dr Marc-Andre Amyot. He denounces the “inertia of officials”.
“The government does not want to settle this! said the Dr Amyot. It is not correct to ask the patients of family physicians to pay an amount of money when it is covered by specialists. »
In a message sent to its members on Tuesday, the president of the FMOQ recommended that family physicians refer patients in need of a medical evaluation for homologation of mandate to specialist physicians. “I didn’t make that decision lightly,” he said. It’s not to optimize the network. It’s not to improve access. »
The Dr Amyot believes that this service should be free for all patients and that the government should remunerate family doctors for this act.
Questioned on this subject, the Ministry of Health and Social Services had not answered the questions of the Duty at the time these lines were written.
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