Ontario offers new fee deal to optometrists along with retroactive payment

Ontario has taken new steps with an eye to resolving the fee dispute with the Ontario Association of Optometrists (OAO).

In a letter to the association, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said the goal of the province is to reach an agreement on a new fee schedule as soon as possible and before the optometrists take job action. 

Elliott said it is important to “build a long-term and sustainable funding relationship with Ontario’s optometrists that ensures patients can continue to receive the care they need.”

This follows a decision by Ontario's optometrists earlier this year to withdraw from OHIP, Ontario's Health Insurance Plan, on the basis that the fees they were being paid for eye exams were too low; and not sustainable. 

The OAO has said if an agreement cannot be reached, optometrists are prepared to withdraw their services by Sept. 1.

In her letter dated on Monday Elliott committed to the following:

“I want to be fully transparent with you. Here is the offer we put on the table: 

• An immediate compensation increase of 8.48 per cent at the fee code level, retroactive to April 1, 2021. This represents a “catch up” of fee increases calculated to reflect similar increases applied to physicians over the past decade.
• A one-time payment of $39 million. Like the fee increases described above, this payment would cover a retroactive period over the past decade and was calculated to reflect similar increases applied to physicians during this time.
• Future fee increases to align with increases provided to physicians under the upcoming Physician Services Agreement, including any increases physicians receive beginning April 1, 2021.

In media reports from Toronto, OAO spokesperson and former president Dr. Derek MacDonald said the $39 million payment was “inadequate” and barely covers the funding shortfall of optometrists over the past 10 years. 

MacDonald said the one-time payment does nothing to address sustainability going forward, which is the main concern.

The optometrists website Save Eye Care is urging Ontario residents to express their concern with an email campaign to the government and individual MPPs.