Medical services should be covered by provincial, territorial plan if offered by doctor or provider: Holland

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland has issued a long-promised letter that seeks to clarify rules around out-of-pocket payments for primary-care services, saying that if a service is medically necessary, it should be paid for by a provincial or territorial health plan whether it is provided by a doctor or other provider.In an interview, Mr. Holland said that for services that would otherwise be billed by a physician, providers such as a pharmacist or nurse practitioner can “charge the system the same way a doctor would.”He said, however, that billing by private clinics won’t be permitted at locations where patients have been charged directly for services provided by nurse practitioners that would not involve a physician’s fee.