Ontario doctors who received loans from the province during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to cover increased costs and offset revenue losses stemming from lower patient volumes will now have one year to pay those sums back.
The Ontario government laid out plans to recoup the money in a memo issued to the Ontario Medical Association on Friday. The province said it is "critical" to recover more than $521 million in outstanding loan payments from the COVID-19 Advance Payment Program in order to fund other priorities.
"These funds are critical for important priorities like expanding access to team-based primary care, home care, mental health services and shortening wait times for key surgeries and procedures." Beginning next month, the Ministry of Health will recover that money by deducting pay from physicians' monthly OHIP payments over a one-year period, rather than the original five-month timeline it first proposed, with no interest charged.
"As Ontario and the rest of the world continues to a post-pandemic transition, we have seen billings return to normal and are confident in the ability in those who owe to repay outstanding loans," Hannah Jensen, spokeswoman for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said in an emailed statement.
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