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The "voice of the AMA" – Published regularly throughout the year, the President's Letter informs you about Alberta Medical Association positions on key and complex issues in Alberta’s health care.
Read the November 22 President's Letter
As part of a cross-ministry effort by the provincial government, Alberta Health has invited the Alberta Medical Association to complete a survey on behalf of members. It relates to “legislative changes to safeguard freedom of expression for regulated professionals.”
Right now, the AMA is engaged in more advocacy than at any other time in our history. In the category of fact checking, we coordinated yesterday with section experts to respond to comments made by the premier in a news conference.
Here is AMA Fact Checkup – Issue 2. In this issue, we check and correct government on statements they have made.
Comments on the most recent President's Letter are enabled and welcome. You may also contact the AMA President by email at [email protected].
Below you will find previous issues of The President's Letter. For older issues no longer on the website, contact us.
On Tuesday, April 5 we held a webinar to update members on the status of negotiations with Alberta Health for a new agreement. As promised, the presentation portion of the webinar was recorded (member login required) for those unable to attend.
As you know we have been continuing interest-based negotiations with government. I wrote to you on March 27 to advise that, based on recent conversations with Alberta Health, there would be no changes – planned or otherwise – to stipends come March 31.
As Alberta welcomes displaced Ukrainians – with hundreds more expected to arrive in the coming weeks – I know as physicians we will do everything we can to enable their access to care until they can safely return home or permanently relocate to Canada.
I am writing this evening to provide an update on the various stipend programs that are due to end on March 31, 2022 or shortly thereafter.
As promised, a new phase of AMA advocacy is beginning to help Albertans better understand what is happening in health care in Alberta. We are also hoping to identify ideas – with partners and stakeholders – for resolution, innovation and solutions.
The Virtual Spring Representative Forum Part One was held March 11. The Spring RF Part Two will be held May 13-14 in person, COVID-state permitting. In this letter I want to share the March 11 highlights:
I am writing to share my concerns and the AMA’s response regarding a letter that was sent yesterday to physicians from Alberta Health Services. AHS is providing notice that on July 1, 2022, it will implement a framework “for assessing and recovering physician overhead costs that will be a consistent approach for AHS physician overhead across all zones, and in all facilities; urban, regional and rural. Note: Timelines are subject to pandemic response.”
Yesterday, government released its 2022-23 budget which featured substantial investment in health care. It is good to see government paying attention to health care in a concrete fashion. I also appreciate references made in budget documents to interest-based negotiations with physicians, and our common interests such as quality of care, health care sustainability and stability of physician practices.
Yesterday, Alberta Health released a bulletin informing physicians that effective February 15, 2022, all eligible claims for enhanced virtual care codes can now be submitted to AH’s claims system.
As I was writing this letter, the province’s changes to public health restrictions were announced. I did several media interviews on this announcement. Here is a post that we placed on the AMA’s Twitter feed with a link to an interview I did with Global News.