7 Ane arerdent NE ste Ned pes January 16, 1994 48 pages DEEP COVE chiropractor. Paul Wiggins opted out of MSP this month and is billin ment for reasonable compensation for his service. DOD WEST VANCOUVER MATH WIZARD Sutherland teacher receives nat’l honors for excellence. The government is responsible for setting the MSP fe g his MSP-insured patients a $10 office fee. e schedule for chiropractors. BRIDAL PARTY Today's wedding gowns feature less froth and more formality, NEWS pholo Neil Lucente Wiggins has given up on the govern- increases passed on to patients as fight over MSP billings escalates A NORTH Shore chiroprac- tor is part of tae 25% of B.C. chiropractors who are now directly billing (heir patients with fee inereases, By Anna‘Marie D'Angelo News Reporter At the start of January. Paul Wiggins. who has a chiropractic practice in Deep Cove, started charging patients a SO “office fee” instead of a $5 user fee. He has opted out of the provin- cial Medical Services Plan (MSP) and gets medical plan fees similar to the controversial way in which specialists at Lions Gate Hospital (LGH) who have opted-out af MSP LEER A get their tees, The LOH specttists use limited- power-ofailtorney formes signed by patients 10 bi MSP. The hospital doctors can thereby getthe MSP fee money directly. but wat sity they cre not part of the plan because the fees are released on behalt ofa patient, aot a doctor. Wigyins sitid he has resorted to his new system because he can’t et # raise from the government unfess he charges the office fee. id Wig us do tis reerettiibly,” He added that chiropractors just santa hair wage. According the the B.C. Chiropractic Associition (BECCA! the recommended office visit i MSP currently pays chiroprac- AEA ERY DOOR OR ins. “HE think most of tors SELAS aad the patient pays at SS user fee for ian office visit. BCCA excecutive director Don Nixdorf said the fee paid by the government to cover office visits to chiropractors has gone from S145 to the current $11.45 in the past three vears, The provincial government. he do has gone four years without negodating with chiropractors ow that’s bargaining,” Nixdorf, fle added that physicians have had their wages substantially Inereased, relative to chiropractors, in (ie same period. Nixdorf said) chiropractic patients have a choice as to whether they sign the Limited-power-of- attorney forms, whereas they do not, he claimed. have that choice sitid wheo dealitig with the specialists at LGH. He said patients can also pay the opted-out chiropractors directly and then be partially reimbursed by MSP. orth) Vanecouver-Lonsdale MLA David Schreck said it was unfortunate that a large number of the 510 B.C. chiropractors have opted oul of MSP. He rejected the BCCA’s propas- al to increase monthly MSP dues by $2 to eliminate user fees, saying that the public should decide if they wanl to get rid of all user fees, “What there is no chance of, in my opinion. is providing more withoul getting the money from somewhere.” said Schreck, who is a health economist. “While Lam very sympathetic to ere | the (chiropractic) lobby for addi- tional coverage. Pm also sympa- thetic to the fact that times are tough.” He called the use of the linited- power-of-altorney forms by LGH specialists a “media stunt.” But he said presenting the form fo a patent suffering from back pain in an office enviranment was not the same as presenting it toa patient ina life-threatening situa- tion at LGH’s emergency ward. He said chiropractors were not directly comparable to physicians who deal with life-and-death situa- tions. But Nixdorf said the life-and- death argument was shallow, He said some doctors never see patients in a fife-threatening med- ical situations.