IBC makes pitch for Ontario health care reform

The Insurance Bureau of Canada is calling for changes to the way insurers and rehabilitation service providers deal with each other, in light of the growing cost of auto-related injuries to the industry. In a submission to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the IBC is pushing for the right to hold rehabilitation providers accountable for their costs and patient outcomes. The IBC notes, “Current provincial regulations prevent automobile insurers from using the kinds of accountability tools that are available to the other payers for health care.” It wants the Insurance Act revised to “permit private insurers to use proven methods for improving health outcomes and managing the cost of care for insured rehabilitation services”.
Insurers recently introduced a standard health care invoice, with provincial approval, and hope to create a health care database to track costs and results of health care services to accident victims.
The insurance industry’s representative body also wants to see a forum established involving insurers, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and the ministry, which would hold regular meetings to discuss health care issues.
Other issues the IBC would like to see addressed include reducing the use of fee-for-service payment to health care providers, reforms to primary health care services and a national injury prevention effort.
The push for health care reform comes on the heels of a dramatic rise in costs associated with auto-accident injuries, the bureau notes. Over the past decade, these costs have increased 350%, despite the fact that the number of injuries has decreased.
“The enormous rise in the cost of treating injured people is a major factor in one of the worst downturns ever experienced in the Ontario automobile insurance market,” says Mark Yakabuski, IBC’s vice president for the Ontario region.