Committees

The FAC assists the OMA board in its oversight role with respect to the organization’s financial affairs, including: 

• The quality and integrity of the financial statements, the financial reporting process and related information  
• Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and applicable disclosures 
• Accounting and financial reporting policies, practices and procedures  
• Internal controls and audit procedures  
• Enterprise risk management processes and practice

2023 highlights

• 2023 fiscal audit by Deloitte LLP
• Renewed three-year Internal Audit Plan by MNP LLP and Constituency and Privacy audits
• Developed the OMA’s 2023 operating and capital budget

Members

• Dr. Sanjay Acharya, chair
• Carmen Rossiter, vice-chair
• Sue Armstrong, CPA, non-OMA director
• Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro
• Dr. Cathy Faulds, OMA board chair

The GNC assists the board in gaining and maintaining reasonable assurance that the board’s composition, structures and practices will enable it to discharge its oversight and other duties in a highly effective manner. The GNC has five voting members, including the chair of the General Assembly Steering Committee and an OMA member-at-large. The president-elect sits on the committee as an observer.

2023 highlights

• Revised OMA Committee Appointment Policy and Procedure that provides a competitive and equitable process to encourage broad participation of OMA members    
• Support of constituency governance review resulting in district and section charters to better align the roles, responsibilities and authorities of constituency groups   
• Successful recruitment and appointment to board committees, OMA subsidiary boards, advisory committees, PSA bilateral committees such as the Physician Payment Committee (PPC) and the Negotiations Task Force, while ensuring adequate OMA representation on external bodies, such as the Provincial Primary Care Advisory Table 
• Oversight in the review and revision of the Physician Health Program (PHP) Advisory Panel terms of reference and board committee charters to clearly define and streamline mandate, composition, oversight and reporting 
• Provided guidance in the governance review of OMA Insurance   
• Initiated elections review to improve and enhance member elections and evaluations

Members

• Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, chair
• David Collie, vice-chair
• Dr. Cathy Faulds, OMA board chair
• Dr. Audrey Karlinsky, OMA board vice-chair
• Dr. Veronica Legnini, GASC chair, ex-officio (term ended Sep. 2023)
• Dr. Alykhan Abdulla, GASC chair, ex-officio (term started Sep. 2023)
• Dr. Katherine McKay, member-at-large
• Dr. Dominik Nowak, president-elect, non-voting observer

The HRCC assists the board in its oversight duties with respect to the selection, development, evaluation, compensation and succession planning of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and oversight of the OMA’s key talent management and human resource philosophy, strategies, practices and programs. The committee has five members.

2023 highlights

• Struck CEO Selection Committee (Dr. Cathy Faulds, Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, Dr. Sanjay Acharya, Dr. Justin Hall, Dr. Alison Freeland, Dr. Andrew Park)
• Supported the selection committee in the recruitment of a new CEO

Members

• Denise Carpenter, chair
• Dr. Sharon Bal, vice-chair
• Dr. Cathy Faulds, OMA board chair
• Dr. Cynthia Walsh
• Dr. Andrew Park, president

The NAC is the only decision-making committee within the OMA and has a dual reporting relationship with the Governance and Nominating Committee and the General Assembly Steering Committee. The committee is comprised of five voting members and the immediate past-president as an ex-officio, non-voting member.

NAC is responsible for the oversight of the recruitment and appointment of qualified members to serve on the panels and working groups of the General Assembly. The committee also supports the promotion and recruitment of qualified candidates for election to the GASC and to the board of directors.

2023 highlights

The NAC engaged in key work and priorities, including:

• Successful appointments to four General Assembly working groups 
• Appointments for the second term of General Assembly panels 
• Review and approval of General Assembly revised panel terms and eligibility requirements to ensure that oversight bodies can minimize real or perceived conflicts of interest arising at these tables while fulfilling their mandates
• Input into a leadership reappointment process for appointed leadership positions

Members

• Dr. Justin Hall, chair
• Dr. Diana Kljenak, vice-chair
• Levi Burns, medical student
• Dr. Sara Colozza
• Dr. Avi Orner
• Dr. Rosemary Zacharias, past president, non-voting observer

The NTF is a board task force that works bilaterally to negotiate the Physician Services Agreement with the Ministry of Health’s negotiating team. Terms of service on the NTF are mandate driven.

The current NTF was appointed in February 2023, and is comprised of five members, with a minimum of two specialists and two general/family practitioners. The physician members of the NTF are supported by two external negotiations advisers.

2023 highlights

In 2023, NTF held engagement sessions and consultations in the development of negotiations priorities and a negotiating mandate. OMA members, constituency groups, committees, working groups, General Assembly panels and networks were invited to submit priorities. The OMA Women Committee met with NTF to present their negotiations priorities, including addressing gender pay gap.  The negotiations mandate, approved by the board in September, reflected the highest priorities of the profession and provided direction to the NTF in the form of core objectives that need to be achieved to reach an agreement on behalf of members.  

In addition, leaders of the OMA and the NTF have been working hard with the ministry to find a path to resolution on Year 3 (2023-24). This has included several negotiation sessions between the OMA and government. As a result of these significant efforts, we have been able to reach an agreement on the amount of the Year 3 (2023-24) payments under the current 2021-24 PSA, which will provide the profession with a 2.8 per cent global increase and set out a faster process for Year 1 of the next PSA (2024-25). 

This expedited process will provide an opportunity for the OMA to pursue Year 1 increases that include catch-up for the impact of inflation over the term of the previous PSA. Mediation on Year 1 between the OMA and government will be overseen by arbitrator William Kaplan and was scheduled for March/April 2024. Arbitration for Year 1 has been scheduled for early May.

Learn more about the negotiations process, key dates, and access resources.

Members

• Dr. Nikolina Mizdrak, family medicine, chair
• Dr. Atul Kapur, emergency medicine, vice-chair 
• Dr. Patrick Conlon, psychiatry
• Dr. David Neilipovitz, anesthesiology
• Dr. Winnie Wong, family medicine

Advisors

• Steven Barrett, Goldblatt Partners
• Howard Goldblatt, Goldblatt Partners

The EPC operates as a standing committee reporting to the PSC and OMA Board. The EPC includes four OMA members and works bilaterally to improve physician awareness and understanding of appropriate OHIP billing by developing and communicating education resources.

2023 highlights

The committee continues to develop virtual care resources and billing briefs pertaining to select areas of the schedule. Since 2022, the EPC has published 15 billing briefs on issues such as the new virtual care framework, attendance at labour and delivery and billing for supervision of postgraduate medical trainees.

Members

• Dr. Julia Upton, clinical immunology and allergy, chair
• Dr. Artur Gevorgyan, otolaryngology
• Dr. Jane Healey, pediatrics
• Dr. Winnie Wong, family practice

In accordance with the 2021 Physician Services Agreement, the PPC was struck to replace the Medical Services Payment Committee (MSPC). Its mandate is to make recommendations on how to implement each constituency’s compensation increases to the Schedule of Benefits. The PPC operates as a standing committee reporting to the PSC and OMA Board and includes four OMA members appointed for a two-year term.

2023 highlights

The PPC held an information session in June for section leaders to learn more about its process for Year 3 of the 2021-2024 Physician Services Agreement. This multi-year process, which will result in Schedule of Benefits changes beginning April 1, 2025, will involve developing fee proposals to modernize the fee schedule, addressing issues related to fee relativity and gender pay equity in medicine, and changes to medical innovation and/or technological advancements. OMA sections, medical interest groups and fora will consult with their members in developing these proposals.

Learn more about the Physician Payment Committee.

Members

• Dr. Dan Reilly, obstetrics and gynecology, OMA co-chair 
• Dr. Miguel Cortel-LeBlanc, emergency medicine
• Dr. Neshmi Zaman, family practice
• Dr. Molly Thangaroopan, cardiology

The PSC provides a broad and structured process for regular liaison and communication between the Ministry of Health and the OMA as required under the Representation Rights Agreement. The OMA and Ministry of Health view the role of the PSC to be focused on broad health-system transformation and policy initiatives involving Ontario physicians. The PSC acts as a steering committee and strikes working groups as needed to address implementation and operational issues.

2023 highlights

The 2021 Physician Services Agreement was ratified in March 2022. Ratification of an arbitrated PSA typically initiates a process to reconstitute the PSC, which was appointed in September 2022. The PSC is comprised of five voting members, including a minimum of two specialists and two general/family practitioners, the president-elect and vice-chair of the board as ex-officio, non-voting members  

A major component of the PSC’s charter is to implement the current PSA by developing and overseeing working groups and committees. The PSC achieved several implementation successes last year, including: 

• Hospital On-Call Working Group – recommendations on allocation of $12.5 million for groups applying for on-call program funding 
• Rural and Northern Physician Group Agreement – established a methodology to implement a complement review of all RNPGA communities, and as a result, 32 communities went up in complement 
• Physician Payment Committee – recommendations and finalization of permanent implementation of the negotiated 2.01 per cent fee increases  
• Family Health Organization (Managed Entry) – 617 FHO spots filled since agreement put in place  
• Appropriateness Working Group – ten of the group’s 11 proposals from the 2021 PSA were finalized 
• Virtual care framework – new framework implemented  
• Joint Forms Committee – physicians are now compensated for completing a Medical Certificate of Stillbirth, effective July 1, 2023  
• Bilateral Burnout Task Force
  • Commitment from MOH and Ministry of Red Tape Reduction to reduce administrative burden from forms, starting with 12 priority forms identified by the Forms Committee 
  • Burnout measure guide developed for health system stakeholders to use a standard measure of burnout 
• Scope Changes – successful in pausing proposed initiative to have nurse practitioners become long-term care medical directors  

Learn more about the PSC, implementation timelines and high-level deliverables.  

Learn more about the Physician Services Committee.

Members

• Dr. Jane Purvis, rheumatology, OMA co-chair
• Dr. Joy Hataley, general and family practice/anesthesia
• Dr. Neil Isaac, diagnostic radiology
• Dr. Peter Lovrics, general surgery
• Dr. Nikolina Mizdrak, general and family practice
• Dr. Audrey Karlinsky, board vice-chair
• Dr. Dominik Nowak, president-elect  

In 2023, driven by feedback from award nominators, recipients and the broader OMA membership, the awards program began a significant evolutionary process. This included an enhanced mandate and refreshed membership for a new OMA Awards and Recognition Committee (ARC). Awards and Recognition Committee members were appointed for two-year terms effective Jan. 1, 2024.  

2023/2024 highlights 

• Nominations for the 2023 OMA awards were received and the committee met in early March to recommend 2023 award recipients to the OMA board for approval at the March 2024 meeting. Award recipients will be announced to members in spring 2024
• Details around the 2024 awards and nominations process are being finalized and will be communicated to members in the coming months. For more information, or to share your feedback on how we can improve the awards program, please contact info@oma.org

Members

• Dr. Rose Zacharias, chair, OMA immediate past president
• Dr. Cathy Faulds, OMA board chair
• Dr. Alykhan Abdulla, GASC representative
• Dr. Philip Baer
• Dr. Vincent Chan
• Dr. Laura-Eve Mantella

The mandate of the Task Force is to develop a baseline (benchmark) and make recommendations on system-level solutions to reduce burnout among physicians, residents and medical students in Ontario and contribute to the achievement of the Quadruple Aim for health care system effectiveness by improving providers’ work lives.    

2023 highlights 

The bilateral MOH-OMA Burnout Task Force meets regularly, with a priority focus on administrative burden. It was successful in obtaining the support of the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction to reduce administrative burden through forms, beginning with forms prioritized by the physician members of the Joint OMA-MOH Forms Committee and the OMA Forms Committee. The forms committees identified the first priority forms based on consultations and surveys, members’ proactive communication on forms issues, guiding principles for best practices, and their expertise on forms.    

This work is being led on the government side by the MOH and the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction, with involvement from the Cabinet Office and various form-owner ministries, and with oversight from the Premier’s Office.    

The Task Force developed a guide on the standard measure of burnout identified by the group to help system stakeholders utilize the measure. The MOH as agreed to co-brand that guide and will be working with the OMA on publishing and disseminating it to health system stakeholders.

Also in fall 2023, the Task Force convened the Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association (CLHIA), Manulife, and the Forms Committee to discuss opportunities to reduce burden through insurance forms. The Ontario College of Family Physicians also joined, as they have been pushing the issue forward. CLHIA shared work it has begun, including a simplified standard short-term disability form for Canada, and the Task Force encouraged the association to include physician review as they develop standard forms. The Task Force also discussed the importance of insurance companies removing the requirement for physician referrals to paramedical services.   

A new topic being explored by the Task Force is centralized referral. This followed work on wait times and recommendations made on centralized referral in the February 2022 Integrated Ambulatory Centre white paper.

The Burnout Task Force will explore the issue given the element of burden involved in referrals. Centralized referral will be discussed at the next meeting.

Members

• Dr. Mamta Gautam, chair  
• Dr. Stephanie Klei
• Dr. Simron Singh
• Dr. Chris Bourdon
• Dr. Carol-Anne Moulton

The purpose of the Civility, Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) Committee is to create a culture of civility at the OMA and empower members to promote and participate in civility. The committee will adjudicate disputes between members. The committee will also engage in activities and exercises to promote diversity and inclusion, such as the development of educational tools and resources.

2023 highlights

Over the past year, the CDI Committee was repopulated and developed a Code of Conduct & Civility for all OMA members involved in OMA work. Based on experiences of the committee in dealing with physician civility complaints, the work around complaints and civility was rolled into the organizational Respect in the Workplace Policy and its associated processes. 

This work will therefore no longer be under the purview of this committee. Finally, the Committee was tasked with deciding how to best be organized to deliver on the civility and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) components of its charter. Given that complaints are no longer the responsibility of the committee, it is likely that the mandate of the committee will shift to an EDI focus in future.

Members

• Dr. Alison Freeland, chair
• Dr. Tisha Joy, vice-chair
• Dr. Clover Hemans
• Dr. Sung Min Cho
• Dr. Anthea Paul

The Health Policy Committee is responsible for supporting the OMA in the development of its policy agenda, monitoring progress on the OMA’s healthy policy goals, reviewing policies and submissions as needed, and providing advice on emerging issues. Over the past year, the committee met three times and has been a critical advisor on key policy issues. The committee is comprised of six members.

2023 highlights

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) policy consultations

Health Policy and Promotion (HPP) submitted feedback to the CPSO on the following six policy consultations: Conflicts of Interest and Industry Relationships; Physician Behaviour in the Professional Environment; Proposed Regulatory Amendments to Regulate Physician Assistants; Consent to Treatment; Principles of Medical Professionalism; and Physician Treatment of Family Members, Self, or Others Close to Them. The HPC was consulted and provided feedback on these consultations, which helped to inform the submission to the CPSO.

Scope of practice

HPC considered several scope of practice proposals. Based on feedback from HPC and consultations with appropriate sections, HPP responded to proposals from regulatory health professional colleges and the MOH on expanding scope for midwives, registered nurses, naturopaths, chiropodists and pharmacists.

Home care

The OMA’s Prescription for Ontario included a number of major recommendations to improve home care such as developing quality standards, increasing funding for home care and recruiting more staff, integrating care coordinators and reducing red tape.

Privacy and PHIPA modernization

The OMA submitted a written response to the MOH’s consultation on PHIPA modernization (Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004) with feedback from HPC, the OMA legal department and OntarioMD. The submission identified key aspects of necessary reform to include ownership and access rights, data pools, interoperability, de-identification of data, and education/training for providers. The HPC was also updated on the MOH/Ontario Health (OH) Primary Care Information Exchange (PCIE) initiative which would get physicians to contribute primary care data from their EMRs to the provincial EHR. This initiative would begin as a pilot project and is currently being discussed by the MOH-OMA-OH-OntarioMD at a PCIE sub-group under the bilateral Digital Health Advisory Table, where the OMA has been raising policy considerations and the need to engage members.

Integrated Community Health Services Centre

Health Policy has reviewed and provided input on three MOH consultations on ICHSCs, based on consultation with the Health Policy Committee and affected sections. We have emphasized in each the importance of engaging with physicians while MOH develops and implements planning, reviewing new requirements through the lens of administrative burden and trying to reduce burden through the new system, keeping members informed of plans and details that affect them and following the principles established on community-based ambulatory expansion – notably, addressing HHR shortages and supporting the Quintuple Aim.

Uninsured patients proposal

As part of a discussion around strengthening health equity, HPC was engaged following the government’s termination of the Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons (PHSUP) program. The OMA was invited to participate in a working group of health system partners to collaborate on recommendations to address gaps. A preliminary document with an overview of recommendations has been produced and a complementary document with more detail will be coming soon.

2SLGBTQ+ position statement

Informed by a group of expert physicians and input from Sections and HPC, a foundational position statement has been drafted affirming the OMA’s support for 2SLBGTQ+ persons and outlining high-level policy priorities to achieve greater health equity. Once complete, the position statement will be shared. It will serve as a reference point for interactions with the 2SLGBTQ+ community and a foundational springboard for future policy work on more discrete areas.   

Community paramedicine

Feedback was obtained from HPC regarding Community Paramedic (CP) Programs in Ontario. The OMA is focused on program implementation, specifically around the need for comprehensive medical directives, with informed and engaged physician delegators. We are supportive of establishing a provincial framework, unifying the programs with some form of standardization (i.e., what is the range of services provided), while still allowing them to be nimble enough to meet local needs.

Canadian Medical Association (CMA) dialogue on private-public care

The CMA launched a “coordinated, national dialogue” on “privatization” in response to “health ministers across the country [grappling] with intractable wait lists for everything from primary care to specialized surgeries.” The Chair of HPC was part of a delegation of OMA leaders who attended a CMA townhall and the committee was kept informed of this work. Recognizing multiple member perspectives on this issue, the OMA does not have a position regarding private care, and this has been maintained throughout our involvement with the CMA’s work.

Looking ahead

Additional policy issues and continued discussions to be addressed in 2024 include centralized referral, team-based care, regional credentialing and administrative burden, health equity, mental health and addiction and member advocacy.

Members

• Dr. Travis Carpenter, chair
• Dr. Audrey Campbell
• Dr. Cheril Clarson
• Dr. Jesse Pasternak
• Dr. Kevin Wasko
• Dr. David Schieck

The Member Relations, Advocacy and Communications Committee provides advice, recommends strategy and monitors the OMA in its external and member communications, branding, regional engagement, government relations and advocacy initiatives, and member experience. The work aims to promote member interests and evolve the OMA brand. The committee is comprised of six OMA members with the OMA president as an ex-officio member. The Committee met infrequently in 2023 and is currently undergoing a governance review.

Members

• Dr. Andrew Park, OMA president, chair
• Dr. Bryce Durafourt
• Faran Khalid
• Dr. Rohit Kumar
• Dr. Pamela Liao
• Dr. Meenakshi Natarajan
• Dr. Jane Purvis

The Member Services Committee provides strategic advice and guidance on the creation, implementation and delivery of unique and cost-effective programs and services that members use on a voluntary basis, which create value for the OMA membership. The committee evaluates new opportunities through a standardized framework to review alignment, role, resources, risks and priorities.

The composition of the committee includes a minimum of one student or resident member, four practising members, one retired member and other members, up to a maximum of seven.

The committee met infrequently in 2023 and is currently undergoing a governance review.

Members

• Dr. Justin Hall, chair
• Dr. Edward Bell, retired
• Dr. Aleksander Brezar
• Dr. Martin Chen
• Dr. Cody Jackson
• Dr. Dalia Karol
• Dr. Phillip Tremblay

The Relativity Advisory Committee (RAC) provides advice and ongoing input to the board and the Negotiations Task Force (NTF) regarding the development and implementation of an evidence-based relativity methodology. Membership includes two physicians each from the primary care, diagnostic, medical and surgical networks, respectively, for a total of eight.

Overall status of Fee-Adjust Income Relativity (FAIR) model

• The FAIR model is not yet ready for implementation for the 2024 PSA  
• While the RAC have completed both the return on education and non-fee-for-service components to the FAIR model, it is still waiting on the results of the Statistics Canada Overhead Study which is on hold due to a legal case against the OMA. It is expected that the case will be resolved, and the study is expected to be completed in 2024    
• The biggest obstacle for finalizing the FAIR model is the lack of accurate, representative and timely data on hours of work    
• Until the FAIR model is fully developed, the current relativity model used by the OMA is the Comparison of Adjusted Net Daily Income (CANDI)

2023 highlights – RAC efforts to determine hours of work in 2023

The FAIR model relies on a modernized schedule of benefits to provide it with times for each service. From there, hours of work can then be determined for each specialty. However, the schedule of benefits modernization has not yet been completed. In the absence of a modernized schedule of benefits, the RAC spent the majority of 2023 exploring methodologies to assign service times to the existing Schedule of Benefits. The existing schedule of benefits already contains a notable proportion of services with service times attached to them, either directly or indirectly (e.g. anesthetic units for surgical services). However, data on service time for most consultations and assessments (approximately 60 per cent of the schedule) are not readily available.

The RAC first proposed using the Benchmark Estimate of Service Times (BEST) methodology to assign times to the existing fee schedule where none previously existed. It would do so by measuring service times for a benchmark code for each physician group and then inferring service times for other codes using OHIP claims data and multiple regression analysis. The RAC organized various information sessions for OMA constituencies and asked for feedback through a survey. Based on this feedback, the RAC ultimately chose not to go forward with recommending this methodology to the OMA board.

The RAC also submitted a series of priorities to the Negotiations Task Force for 2024 PSA negotiations. A progress and feedback report on both the non-fee-for-service and return on education components of the FAIR model was drafted and posted to the OMA website.

Members

• Dr. Sonu Gaind, psychiatry (medical network), chair
• Dr. Marilyn Crabtree, family practice (primary care)
• Dr. Ipshita Kak, pathology (diagnostic)
• Dr. Giuliana Federici, pediatrics (medical)
• Dr. Eric Goldszmidt, anesthesiology (surgical)
• Dr. Asad Razzaque, family practice (primary care)
• Dr. Christopher Vinden, general surgery (surgical)
• Dr. Caitlin Ward, diagnostic imaging (diagnostic)

The OMA Forms Committee and the Bilateral Joint Forms Committee report to the OMA Board of Directors and the Physician Services Committee. Membership consists of four OMA members and OMD representatives, and there is equal representation from the MOH for the bilateral committee, which meets six times a year.

The committee is committed to reviewing all new, revised or existing forms that need to be completed by physicians and it reviews the need for any changes to existing forms, including digitization and the use of new technologies. Collaboratively, the MOH and the OMA have developed a Form Appraisal Checklist to apply when reviewing any government form at the JFC. This report will focus on the activities of the OMA Forms Committee.

2023 highlights 

The OMA Forms Committee met seven times in 2023, not including any other special meetings. The following are some of the key issues addressed:   

• Development of form-guiding principles and criteria for review  
• Met with CLHIA, CMA, RBC and Sunlife Insurance reps regarding the standardization of insurance forms and reducing administrative burden  
• Provided advice to the OMA Uninsured Services Committee (USC) on third-party form fees and collaborating with the USC on drafting a member reference document that lists specific form fees   
• Met with eHealth Centre for Excellence with regards to supporting the development of eForms  
• The committee was successful in bringing forward a recommendation that a fee code be implemented in the OHIP Schedule of Benefits completion of a Medical Certification of Stillbirth (MCOS) form, effective July 2023. This service is payable to the physician who completes the form and includes counselling of family members rendered at the same visit   
• Due to the continued efforts of the OMA Forms Committee and Bilateral Forms Committee, the MOH announced in January 2024 that it no longer requires a physician signature on the Assistive Devices Program Application for Funding Hearing Devices form, effective Jan. 29  

Looking ahead 

• Both parties agree to make every reasonable effort to reduce the amount of administrative work performed by physicians to increase patient access to care    
• Provide insight on administrative burden to the Bilateral Burnout Committee and the Ministry of Red Tape

Members

• Dr. Scott Elliott, chair
• Dr. Marilyn Crabtree
• Dr. Debra Dyke
• Dr. Jane Purvis

The OMA Human Resource Committee (OHRC) reviews evidence on existing and emerging physician human resources issues to provide recommendations to the OMA Board and CEO that support decision-making, policy formulation, workforce planning and negotiations. OHRC members are the OMA’s representatives on the bilateral Physician Human Resources Working Group (PHRWG), a subcommittee of the Physician Services Committee (PSC), which is the collaborative process for identifying and responding to urgent PHR issues in the province. The committee is comprised of four OMA members.

2023 highlights

In 2023, OHRC recommended development of a provincial physician workforce strategy, which is a key concept reflected in the OMA’s Prescription for Ontario; conducted a risk-benefit assessment of the proposed third year of family medicine residency; and was consulted by the Auditor General of Ontario to inform their audit of northern hospital services. Achievements at the bilateral table include contributing to the development and launch of the Practice Ready Ontario assessment program which allows a streamlined pathway to practice for qualified, experienced, internationally trained physicians; and the Northern Ontario Resident Streamlined Training and Reimbursement (NOR-Star) program which supports increased access to northern learning experiences by reducing financial barriers.

Key priorities over the coming year include:    

• Supporting the OMA Negotiations Task Force in assessment of HHR-related proposals and advising that solutions to physician workforce challenges must focus on the “3-Rs” of retention of the current workforce, recruitment to the Ontario physician workforce, and return of physician capacity to the workforce   
• Advising the bilateral Physician Human Resources Working Group (PHRWG) on the continued development of solutions to urgent physician workforce issues   
• Collaborating on development of the Physician Resources Integrated Model (PRIME) for physician workforce planning. PRIME is an OMA innovation project that is being constructed in phases, and once complete, will inform policies to align health workforce capacity with population health needs under different scenarios   
• Continuing to oversee analysis of the gender pay gap in medicine to better understand the underlying factors, and promote further actions towards equity through negotiations or other means   
• Continuing to disseminate the Four Moments in Fit-for-Purpose Physician Workforce Planning Toolkit OHRC developed, to support physician resources planning initiatives

These priorities reflect the importance of bilateral collaboration to address emerging physician human resources issues (through the working group), and the opportunity to lead nationally in physician workforce planning (through PRIME).

Members

• Dr. Robert Dinniwell, co-chair
• Dr. Sarah Simkin, co-chair
• Dr. Sarah-Lynn Newbery
• Dr. Carmine Simone

The committee is mandated to advise the OMA on how best to support medical women in practice and to encourage them to become involved in advocacy and medical politics.

2023 highlights

In 2023, the committee presented its negotiation priorities to the OMA Negotiations Task Force (NTF) advocating for fairness, compensation, accountability and the need to address the gender pay gap in medicine. It also provided guidance to the OMA’s Healthcare Evaluative Research team on several research projects related to the gender pay gap. The research team published a paper that showed evidence male physicians have an advantage both in terms of the number of referrals they receive and in the average revenue per referral. The committee is currently collaborating with the OMA on a project to assess the trend in the gender pay gap over time.

On Feb. 7, 2024, the committee hosted a webinar on achieving financial independence for women in medicine. Dr. Stephanie Zhou, a family physician and lecturer on financial literacy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, presented on the unique financial challenges faced by women in medicine when building their net worth. Committee members shared their experiences navigating financial topics such as prenuptial agreements, divorce, maternity leave, childcare and building overall financial stability. Panelists included: Drs. Samira Jeimy, Michelle Cohen, Finn Auld, Marie-Claude Gagnon. The webinar garnered more than 460 registrations. The session was well received, and members have requested more sessions on topics related to finance and maternity leave.

Members

• Dr. Samira Jeimy, chair
• Dr. Michelle Cohen, vice-chair
• Dr. Finn Auld
• Yashaswani Chauhan, medical student
• Dr. Fiona Pinto
• Dr. Marie-Claude Gagnon
• Dr. Daniela Isfan 
• Dr. Meredith Giuliani 

The Uninsured Services Committee (USC) is mandated to review and recommend revisions to the Physician’s Guide to Uninsured Services and Schedule of Fees as required and to recommend fees for new or unlisted uninsured services. The committee comprises four members, and work is completed on an annual cycle. 

2023 highlights

In 2023, following consultation with the various constituency groups, recommendations were successfully advanced for a 3.24 per cent increase to fee in the Physician’s Guide to Uninsured Services, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

The USC has made a commitment with the OMA side of the Forms Committee to connect at least on an annual basis to check in on work that may overlap. In 2023, the Forms Committee took time to re-evaluate the fees on several forms that are listed in the Physician’s Guide to Uninsured Services. In 2024, once the work is completed, the USC and the Forms Committee will jointly publish a forms fee reference list as a resource for members.

Members

• Dr. Jesse Wheeler, chair 
• Dr. Lisa Fu
• Dr. John Harrington
• Dr. Joy Weisbloom