The Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) has published its submission made to the College of Physiotherapists of Alberta, wherein it asks the college to amend the profession’s proposed standards of practice in that province.
Specifically, it encourages the college to include advice saying loyalty points should not be offered with purchase or accepted as payment for physiotherapy services. It discusses documentation standards and also addresses the matter of virtual care. “We recommend that the standard identify the type of treatment that can and cannot be provided virtually. This needs to be very specific,” they write.
“It is understood that colleges have moved away from being prescriptive, but this particular area, the provision of virtual healthcare, is one where more definition and transparency may be needed in order to ensure that care is provided to the level required,” they continue. “We recommend that the virtual care section of the standard has a section where identity must be confirmed, both identity of the patient and the physiotherapist.”
The submission concludes, suggesting that the standard also be expanded to include a know your patient element, including authenticating the identity of patients when providing virtual care, to ensure that fraud in the system is limited.
In 2022, insurers provided supplementary health coverage to 3.2 million in the province of Alberta. It paid out more than $120-million in benefits for physiotherapy coverage to clients in the province during that same period.