RRNP retroactive payments will be made this week

March 20, 2024

Dear Members,

Alberta Health issued a Bulletin yesterday indicating that retroactive payments will be distributed this Friday, March 22 to physicians who are eligible for Rural Remote Northern Program (RRNP) benefits.

Improvements to RRNP are part of the investments agreed to in the AMA Master Agreement and are intended to support physicians working in underserved communities in Alberta. Schedule 7 of the AMA Agreement (page 49) provides for up to $12M per year to improve access in communities with critical physician supply issues. Alberta Health and the AMA will soon be undertaking a review of the RRNP to identify program improvements and use of these incremental funds. To recognize the delayed implementation of improvements, the AMA and Alberta Health agreed to distribute the first 12 months of funding ($12M) for the period of April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023 in the form of a retroactive payment to physicians who have been eligible for RRNP benefits.

There are further details in the Bulletin but, in short, these benefits are being paid out to physicians who work in rural, remote and northern areas of the province. This payment will focus on physicians in communities where RRNP variable rate payments apply. For those receiving flat fee RRNP payments in less isolated rural areas, some reprogramming of Alberta Health’s claims system is necessary, and we anticipate that their 2022-23 payments will be added to the next set of RRNP retroactive payments (covering 2023-24) sometime this summer.

We are pleased to see another element of the AMA Agreement being implemented.

If you have questions, please reach out directly to Alberta Health, using the contact information contained in the Bulletin. If you run into any difficulties, AMA staff may also be able to assist (billingadvice@albertadoctors.org).

Regards,

Paul Parks
President, Alberta Medical Association