SCOC RULING MAY RESULT IN RELEASE OF NAMES OF ONTARIO'S TOP BILLING DOCS
Apr 11, 2019
By Bob Komsic
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You may soon be able to learn which doctors in Ontario have billed OHIP the most after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
It says it will not hear an appeal from the Ontario Medial Association and two physicians’ groups that were challenging a decision to release the information.
A freedom-of-information request was made to the provincial health minister five years ago for the names of the top 100 billing doctors between 2008 and 2012.
The ministry released some information but without the names and certain specializations.
That was successfully appealed to Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, who ordered full disclosure because the data did not constitute personal information.
The OMA and two doctors’ group then unsuccessfully challenged that in the Ontario courts, before taking it to the Supreme Court which decided it would not hear the case.