Ontario Enters the Transparency Spotlight

Over three years ago, the Toronto Star filed a freedom of information (FIPPA) request with the Health Ministry in Ontario, Canada, seeking physician-identified data on the top 100 billers. Last year, the information and privacy commissioner ordered the disclosure of the top billers’ identities, along with amounts each receives in payments from the taxpayer-funded insurance plan. The Health Ministry allowed partial access to the Star, including payments and most medical specialties, withholding physician names. The Ministry withheld the names as it determined releasing the names would be an “unjustified invasion of privacy.” However, two groups of doctors, along with the Ontario Medical Association, fought the disclosure all the way to Ontario’s Divisional Court. The three-judge panel dismissed an application to quash the aforementioned order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The panel ruled that the order was a reasonable one, and that the ministry shall release the names of the highest-paid physicians public. The groups opposing the release of information argued that an adjudicator with the Information and Privacy Commissioner erred in departing from previous commission orders that found such information was personal. That adjudicator, John Higgins, concluded that physicians receive OHIP payments in relation to their business or profession. Further, he noted that the money does not reflect the actual income of the physicians, because doctors pay overh...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs