LAVAL, Que. - Provincial Health Minister Philippe Couillard wants the Quebec health insurance board to make sure a recently opened private clinic in Montreal is following all the rules.
The clinic offers family medicine and some ambulatory surgery as well as anaesthesia services.
Couillard said Monday he's concerned about having doctors who've opted out of medicare and physicians who are still part of the government health plan operating under the same roof.
"It is not allowed to have participating doctors and non-participating doctors under the same roof," Couillard said. "It is clearly indicated in the law."
The law has been adopted by the Quebec legislature but has not yet come into force.
He also wants the health insurance board to determine the legality of incidental fees charged by the private clinic.
The expenses are incurred to cover the cost of operating rooms and surgical supplies.
Incidental fees can be charged by doctors participating in medicare but they must be part of deals worked out between the physicians' federation and the government.
"We will ask the health insurance board - and this request is in the process of being made - to clarify the question of the incidental expenses that this particular clinic charges patients," the health minister said.
Couillard made the remarks when he and Premier Jean Charest attended the opening of a new cancer treatment centre in Laval, Que.
