A Regina health clinic is offering a subscription for ‘faster service,’ but critics say it’s privatization

A subscription service being offered by a Regina health clinic is coming under fire from critics and one of its patients for appearing to offer privatized health services. 

Cecilia Rands says that about a week or two ago, she received an email addressed to her seven-year-old daughter from Albert & Parliament Primary Health Care, a clinic at 3992 Albert St.

The email had the subject line, “Keep Your Doctor in Practice.”

“It felt deceptive and manipulative, because it grabbed me emotionally that I was worried that my primary-care doctor, who I really like and respect and have a good relationship with … was maybe leaving or changing his practice,” said Rands, who is also a doula. 

Instead, the email encouraged patients of the clinic to sign up for a patient plan through the health-care company Healtheon.

Those packages cost between $29.99 and $49.99. 

The email touts Healtheon as providing patients with “faster service through AI-enabled technologies,” along with “access to a medical second opinion within two weeks,” and “improved patient experience with team-based care,” as well as “access to a network of over 4,000 health-care specialists.”

Rands said she understands that doctors are overworked and under compensated, but thinks the service sounds like a move toward privatization.

“I don’t think that that should be my responsibility as a patient to supplement those costs. That’s why we have a public health-care system,” she said. 

Krystal Lewis is the provincial director of the Saskatchewan Health Coalition, an advocacy group for accessible health care.

The details in the email raise a lot of “red flags,” she said.

“It’s, I think, a slightly less-known and slightly more subtle sort of type of privatization that’s been creeping into the Canadian health-care system,” Lewis said in an interview Tuesday.

The Albert & Parliament Primary Health Care Clinic did not provide a response when reached for comment. 

However, the ability to register for Healtheon has now been removed from the clinic’s website. The links in the email sent to Rands no longer work and now lead to a web page with the title “Oops! That page can’t be found.”

Raymond Rupert, CEO of Healtheon, briefly spoke with CBC/Radio-Canada on Tuesday, but declined to provide clarity to several questions. 

Lewis said news of the subscription service has left her frustrated, but she understands why clinics may feel like they need to implement the policy. 

“Our health-care system is in a crisis and it pushes people to do a lot of different things,” she said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said it only recently became aware of a clinic informing patients about memberships to access certain services. 

“It is important to note that, as per the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act, no physician or clinic can charge a patient a higher fee for a publicly insured service provided by a physician,” the statement reads. 

The Ministry of Health says it is now evaluating the memberships and how they relate to publicly insured services under the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act.