Doctors in this province are going to court today to keep their billings confidential.

Lawyers for two groups of doctors and the Ontario Medical Association will argue that OHIP payments to top-billing physicians are personal information and should not be public.

The information and privacy commissioner last year ordered the public disclosure of the top billers’ identities, along with amounts each receives in payments from the taxpayer funded insurance plan. The ruling said the information is business-related, not personal and should be public because of the importance of transparency of government expenditures.

The doctors heading to court today are asking a three judge panel in Divisional Court to quash the order.

According to data supplied by the ministry, the top 100 OHIP billers in 2012-13 took in a combined $191-million dollars. The highest biller alone claimed more than $6-million dollars, while the second and third highest billers each claimed more than $4-million. Nineteen doctors received payments of more than $2-million dollars each.