Family doctors are spending too much time filling out paperwork, like sick notes for patients’ employers, or forms for their insurance providers, according to the New Brunswick Medical Society.
NB Medical Society president Dr. Paula Keating said paperwork can take up to 30 per cent of a physician’s working hours to complete, especially for family doctors.
“There’s always been paperwork in the medical practice but it seems to have exploded in the last few years,” Keating said in an interview.
“Forms for this, insurance, sick notes, et cetera.”
On Wednesday, Quebec’s provincial government announced plans to table a bill that would prohibit insurers and employers from requiring a doctor’s note for patients to be eligible for reimbursement on things like orthopedic equipment or health treatments such as massage therapy.
Keating said the medical society is calling on New Brunswick to follow suit with legislation aimed at reducing paperwork.
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In an emailed statement sent to Global News on Monday, a representative for the province’s Health Department said the department is “always looking at ways to improve the quality of health-care services in New Brunswick. It is interested in learning more about how this initiative in Quebec could impact both physicians and patients.”
Quebec is the third province to introduce this legislation, Keating said. Ontario announced similar legislation in April, and Nova Scotia’s government tabled a bill in March 2023 that limits how often employers can ask for a doctor’s note when an employee is ill.
The province’s Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness (ORASE) has more than 40 actions underway with a goal to reduce red tape in the medical sector.
One of those actions is the creation of standardized versions of forms like those for short- and long-term disability.
“Doctors used to have to complete 28 different forms across 28 different insurance companies, now they just have to complete 1,” ORASE senior executive director Leanne Hachey said.
Doctors across the country are fed up with the red tape, according to Dr. Kathleen Ross, the president of the Canadian Medical Association.
Ross said the association wants to see a federal standardization of third-party medical forms like the ones insurance providers sometimes require.
The association is also calling for a reduction in the need for medical documents as eligibility criteria for federal programs like the disability tax credit.
“The government federally setting the standard for expectations for businesses for sick notes would go a long way to seeing expansion of the programs that we’re seeing in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario,” Ross said.
Hachey said her department is hoping Ottawa would use Nova Scotia’s standardized forms — the first in the country — as an example for federally standardized forms.
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