It’s hard to believe that 2023 is over but I hope that everyone had a safe and restful holiday season.
It has been a busy year for the OMA and our section:
Negotiations Task Force (NTF): The OMA started negotiations for the 2024 Physician Services Agreement (PSA) in October. As you may have seen through OMA News, the OMA and the government have reached an implementation agreement on the amount of the Year 3 payments under the current 2021-24 Physician Services Agreement. This agreement will provide the profession with a 2.8 per cent global increase effective April 1, 2023, and an expedited process to arbitrate Year 1 of the 2024-28 PSA. NTF has been holding monthly Zoom meetings to provide updates on their progress. The current discussions are confidential, but I will share any updates once permitted to do so.
Relativity Advisory Committee (RAC): The OMA currently uses CANDI (Comparison of Adjusted Net Daily Income) as its relativity model. The RAC is developing an alternate model to use, the Fee-Adjusted Income Relativity (FAIR). An important component of FAIR is the determination of time for each service. The RAC first proposed to calculate this using the benchmark estimation of service time (BEST) methodology. However, the RAC decided not to recommend using the BEST methodology based on member feedback. They are now exploring alternative approaches to estimating the hourly rate in FAIR.
Section Governance Review: Our section was involved in a governance review earlier last year and a few changes have been made to our executive structure. In the past, there was a succession plan where the vice-chair automatically became chair, but under the revised structure, they would have to apply for the position (similar to the process for the other executive positions). We will now have 4 member-at-large members but one of these will be the resident representative and this will still be a 1-year term similar to our previous structure. We will also start the process of selecting a new tariff chair as we have not had someone in the role since 2021.
Physician Payment Committee (PPC): Our section submitted a proposal to the PPC in November and met with the committee in February. Our submission advocated for an increase in fee codes as well as the proposal of new fee codes which are not currently included in the schedule of benefits.
Elections: We did not have any nominations for our secretary/treasurer or resident representative positions during the recent election period in November. We plan to work to fill these positions in the coming months. If you are interested in either of these roles or would like more information, please do not hesitate to reach out.
CASEM-OMA Annual Symposium: It was wonderful to see many of you at OMA Sport Med 2023 which was held at Blue Mountain earlier last year after a brief hiatus. CASEM and our section have come together to plan the CASEM-OMA Annual Symposium which will be taking place at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel from May 28-31, 2024 in Niagara - we look forward to reuniting with you all!
Please also see linked for our March 2024 newsletter. Wishing you all the best for 2024!
Dr. Amandev Aulakh Chair, OMA Section on Sport and Exercise Medicine
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