The Alberta government says it has reached a tentative agreement with the Alberta Medical Association that will improve Albertans’ access to health care and quality of care “in a financially sustainable framework.”
The tentative deal, reached after months of talks, is a set of amendments to an existing 2011-18 agreement.
“The agreement is expected to significantly slow the growth of health-care spending by the end of 2018, while protecting services,” the government said in a news release Wednesday.
“This will be accomplished through several innovations, including: new physician peer review and accountability mechanisms; and the linking of certain benefits and compensation increases to performance on other cost-saving measures.”
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman praised doctors for showing “a willingness to partner with the government in developing solutions that will slow down the growth in health spending and improve health services for patients over the long term.”
In the same news release, AMA president Dr. Carl Nohr said physicians understand their responsibilities as stewards of the health-care system. “With this set of proposed amendments to our agreement, we have created tools that can move us toward a high value, integrated and sustainable system.”
AMA president Dr. Carl Nohr (Alberta Medical Association)
The amendments include a commitment to collaborate on initiatives to improve health services.
The changes include:
- A plan to help put doctors in communities that need them;
- Primary care improvements, including new information technology and data-sharing;
- New compensation models to reward “time and quality of care given to patients, not just the number of services provided.”
It’s expected that the AMA will hold a vote on the agreement by mid-October after explaining it to its members in the coming weeks.
The two sides have also agreed to start talks on the overall master agreement that were previously scheduled to start in 2017.