Cataract surgeries to stay at $350 after B.C. Supreme Court ruling
Posted November 5, 2018 5:37 pm.
Last Updated November 5, 2018 7:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Eye surgeons fighting the B.C. government’s latest fee reduction for cataract surgery have lost their legal challenge at the B.C. Supreme Court.
Justice G.C. Weatherill has sided with the Ministry of Health which found advancements in technology make it easier to perform more than two dozen surgeries every day, effectively reducing the cost to $350 from $425 for a procedure as of Oct 1.
In his decision, he also ruled there’s no proof reducing fees will make wait lists longer.
“While I acknowledge that it is reasonably foreseeable that the reduction of the Cataract Fee Codes to the point where they are the lowest in Canada by a substantial margin may give rise to, among other things:
- a decline in the availability of surgeons who perform such services;
- longer waitlists for cataract surgery;
- surgeons who do perform the service having to work longer hours and being prone to more mistakes
those concerns are, at present, just that. They are mere unsubstantiated speculation,” Weatherill writes in his Nov. 2 judgement.
Lawyers for the B.C. Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, the group representing ophthalmologists, suggests some might leave to work where compensation is higher, but the judge pointed out B.C. now has ten more eye surgeons than the 125 the province had in 2012, when fees dropped from $533 to $425.
In an emailed statement, the ministry tells NEWS 113 it is pleased with Weatherill’s decision to dismiss the injunction application.
“These new lower fees were recommended by the Tariff Committee of the Doctors of B.C., which is comprised of physicians,” the statement says. “The Ministry respects the Doctors of B.C. internal review process, and will await its outcome.”
