The Alberta government announced Tuesday that changes to physicians’ payments for complex modifiers will not go ahead as planned on March 31.
The changes would have impacted how doctors are compensated for time spent on patient visits and potentially the number of issues a patient could see their doctor about.
Under the previously proposed changes, these fees would mandate more time be spent with patients with complex needs, 25 minutes instead of 15, before an extra fee would kick in.
This plan was to be phased in next year. For this year, the complex modifier was still charged at the 15-minute benchmark, but would pay $9 instead of $18.