Restricted medical license in Canada

[nslubana99]

Hi,

I am a general medicine physician in USA. I am planning to get a restricted license to work as a PCP and settle in Canada. However, I have few questions if someone would be kind enough to answer

1. Would I do billing like a physician who has a full independent/unrestricted license?

2. If I have the authority to do the billing like a physician with unrestricted license, then is the reimbursement from the ministry of health (OHIP) same for a claim I send or less than a physician who have unrestricted license?

3. In net shell, I am asking would I generate the same amount of revenue as a physician with unrestricted license would generate working at my clinic and seeing the same number of patients per day as I do?

Thanks
Navdeep Singh

[JohnGrisham]

1 hour ago, nslubana99 said:

Hi,

I am a general medicine physician in USA. I am planning to get a restricted license to work as a PCP and settle in Canada. However, I have few questions if someone would be kind enough to answer

1. Would I do billing like a physician who has a full independent/unrestricted license?

2. If I have the authority to do the billing like a physician with unrestricted license, then is the reimbursement from the ministry of health (OHIP) same for a claim I send or less than a physician who have unrestricted license?

3. In net shell, I am asking would I generate the same amount of revenue as a physician with unrestricted license would generate working at my clinic and seeing the same number of patients per day as I do?

Thanks
Navdeep Singh

Billing shouldn't be affected by having a restricted license, at least not for Fee for service setting.

FYI, as a General Internist, the setting is a bit different in Canada then the US - if you want a pure outpatient practice you will rely on referrals from mostly family doctors, and sometimes other specialists. If you want to work in hospital, then you should be able to do so as well, but it comes with its own considerations (call schedules, salaried  or fee for service etc).

The only catch is, if your Restricted license requires you to have a physician "supervise" you, by signing off and peer reviewing a few charts a month..some docs unfortunately charge  a flat fee or percentage of billing for this. They shouldn't but they do. 

The physician recruiting organization in the province you want to work should be able to easily explain all this for you.  Also make sure you shop around if you are setting up an outpatient practice and do your due diligence, you are essentially running your own business often.

[nslubana99]

Thank you so much for your advice.

My wife is a family physician and she is working in Ontario under restricted license. She is working extended hours (10-12 hours each day) and even every Saturday till late. She is getting only $8000 per month which is very difficult for me to digest. As we are new to Canada health system I believe she is getting abused as you mentioned that the billing is not affected. Her salary comes to $96,000 per year and she was making more than $300,000 in USA. She is not a fresh graduate. She has 4 years of independent experience. 

Do you think its accurate to get that less salary. Straight down to less than 1/3rd. Please advise as to what should we do. Should we look for another job as she still has almost one year of restricted license. 

Thank you so much for your kind reply.