Update from the Ministry

[PAstudent]

http://www.healthforceontario.ca/Work/OutsideOntario/HealthProfessionalsOutsideOntario/OntarioPhysicianAssistantInitiative/pa_2011.aspx

[future_doc]

very interesting!

[PAstudent]

very interesting!

 

Future_Doc! You're alive! Good to see yah.

[future_doc]

Future_Doc! You're alive! Good to see yah.

 

It's application season - so I have returned to help out where I can.

 

It seems to me that the site you have given should be sent - in advance of the deadline required by potential employers (Aug. 18th) - by potential applicants to potential employers, thereby ensuring they are aware of funding opportunities. Somehow, it would be nice if Mac was involved in this process so as to maximize their graduates of obtaining wmployment and a foothold in the Ontario healthcare system at this time.

[PAstudent]

It's application season - so I have returned to help out where I can.

 

It seems to me that the site you have given should be sent - in advance of the deadline required by potential employers (Aug. 18th) - by potential applicants to potential employers, thereby ensuring they are aware of funding opportunities. Somehow, it would be nice if Mac was involved in this process so as to maximize their graduates of obtaining wmployment and a foothold in the Ontario healthcare system at this time.

 

 

Believe me, the good people at Mac are very involved. :-) And the word is out, I'm not even graduating until next year and I have had job offers from people who thought I was done this year!--a very good feeling.

[future_doc]

Cool that Mac are on top of this!

[pre-PA]

That's great, but I'm a bit confused about the government providing financial support in order to make hospitals/clinics hire PAs. What will happen if the government stops providing financial incentive for PAs to be hired? Will hospitals and clinics continue to hire PAs without this incentive?

[PAstudent]

That's great, but I'm a bit confused about the government providing financial support in order to make hospitals/clinics hire PAs. What will happen if the government stops providing financial incentive for PAs to be hired? Will hospitals and clinics continue to hire PAs without this incentive?

 

This funding is meant to go toward the salary of the PA. It is not meant to be the entirety of the PA salary (several PAs are making much much more than the top amount of $92,000,000. given by the Ministry). Whoever hires the PA should fully expect to pay the PA and if they get funding from the Ministry, well fantastic.

 

The Ministry is currently looking at various funding models and no decisions have yet been made, so far as I know, as to how PAs will continue to be paid many years down the road. Possibilities include fee-for-service (direct billing to OHIP), salaries, hourly-wages, percentage-billing, etc., etc.

 

The main financial incentive for a physician or hospital to hire a PA is that the PA should increase billings. If you are a busy family doc with more patients than time, hire a PA, split the patients 50/50, and bill that much more. Some good PAs in the states create hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for their supervising physicians/medical groups.

[future_doc]

The Ministry is currently looking at various funding models and no decisions have yet been made, so far as I know, as to how PAs will continue to be paid many years down the road. Possibilities include fee-for-service (direct billing to OHIP), salaries, hourly-wages, percentage-billing, etc., etc.

 

Exciting times as the the building blocks are being thought about to make the PA services financially sustainable.