Alberta's top doctor says 'good stewardship' answer to soaring costs

Alberta doctors make about $27,000 more than the national average and earn the highest incomes in the country, according to a new report made public Tuesday.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information said Alberta doctors made an average of $366,000 in 2015, or $108,000 more than the average brought in by doctors in the lowest-earning province of Nova Scotia.

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The numbers come at a time when talks over major financial issues such as compensation drag on between the province and its doctors. Alberta Health and the Alberta Medical Association have been in talks since January 2016 about potential changes to the 2011-2018 contract, and there's no end in sight.

Everyone is paid more here ... than in the rest of the country.- Dr. Carl Nohr, AMA president

Provincial government officials are under enormous pressure to cut costs, everywhere, as they face one of the most severe recessions Alberta has ever seen. Health-care spending is the biggest expense in the provincial budget.

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The AMA president defended the province's relatively high compensation rates, but said he recognizes that attitudes around spending need to change.

"We recognize that health care is costly and that we have a contribution to that cost," Dr. Carl Nohr said. "We need to be effective stewards and assist government in managing those health-care expenditures."

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Through regular "letters from the president," Nohr has campaigned to change the way the province delivers health care, saying he wants to see more efficient, integrated system. Such an approach could arguably reduce the number of fees doctors charge per visit, effectively clipping the wings of those soaring compensation figures.

But Nohr made a point of saying fee-for-service payments, as tallied in Tuesday's report, are not a fully accurate measure of doctors' incomes — especially in competitive Alberta.  

"Everyone is paid more [in this province] for equivalent work than in the rest of the country," Nohr said. "And so I don't think it's surprising that physician compensation is in line with what other workers are paid."

Representatives for Alberta Health declined to comment, because of the ongoing negotiations. But spokesperson Carolyn Ziegler said the income information in the CIHI matched the information gathered by the Government of Alberta and made available to the public online.