Kingston, Ont. doctor in 'disbelief' after being ordered to repay $600K for pandemic vaccination payments
CTV
An Ontario health tribunal has ordered a Kingston, Ont. doctor to repay over $600,000 to the Ontario government for improperly billing thousands of COVID-19 vaccinations at the height of the pandemic.
A Kingston, Ont. doctor who has been ordered to repay more than $600,000 to the provincial government for improperly billing thousands of COVID-19 vaccinations says she's not surprised by the verdict but is disappointed by it.
The dispute concerned Dr. Elaine Ma who organized drive-in vaccination clinics, administering shots in several parking lots in the Kingston region between January 2021 and January 2022.
The Ministry of Health argued Ma misused the Ontario Health Insurance Plan's (OHIP) billing code because she hired unpaid Queen’s University medical students as volunteers who could not be considered employees. In addition, the services were not provided in Ma's office, a violation of what the province deems to be "delegated services" that are regulated under a different fee structure.
In a ruling delivered by the Health Services Appeal and Review Board on Nov. 26, Ma was found to not be eligible to bill OHIP $600,962 plus interest.
"It's really still just disbelief that we've completely forgotten about COVID," she told CTV News Ottawa on Monday. "We've completely forgotten what we were asked to do. We were completely forgotten the fact that we were asked to do it in new and different ways, and quickly, and as fast as possible. We've completely forgotten that the Ministry of Health provided a per-shot vaccine code, and that was what was billed. It wasn't anything over that. It was the amount of money that they allocated for those shots to be given."
She added that she does not have the money she is being asked to pay back.
"It wasn't an amount of money that I received. Yes, I received it, but a lot of it then turned around and paid to run these clinics. So, do I have this amount of money sitting around, just waiting to get back to OHIP? No. Further, that will mean that I have actually paid to vaccinate 36,400 people in our community, out of pocket, at my expense," she said.
