Health minister orders review of U.S.-border medical agreement

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This article was published 26/01/2017 (3539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A review has been ordered into a working agreement between the province and U.S. border hospitals to cover emergency medical costs in southeastern Manitoba – which have left several residents facing bills upwards of $100,000, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen confirmed on Thursday.

Goertzen said the 20-year-old agreement is outdated and both residents and U.S doctors in Minnesota and Grand Forks need to be educated on the specifics of what is covered and who is eligible.

But first those specifics need to be reviewed by department officials, Goertzen said.

“I don’t think enough has been done about it,” he told the Free Press in an interview Thursday morning. “It’s been going on for a number of years. I don’t think there’s a very rigid understanding on either side of the border…about what the government can do. There’s a lot of confusion.

“I am troubled when people who are in the most dire situation that they could be in….don’t have the information or ability to make a decision on how or where they should be treated.”

The questions the review needs to ask, Goertzen said, are “How is this system not working? How is it failing people?”

The Free Press reported three specific cases on Wednesday, in which Sprague residents who were treated for various medical emergencies in hospitals in Roseau and Grand Forks were billed between $40,000 and $100,000 (Cdn) after Manitoba Health officials determined the procedures were eligible for coverage under the Altru Agreement. That long standing agreement between the province and U.S. border hospitals allows for residents in the relatively isolated area access to emergency care if there are no options available in Winnipeg.

Goertzen said the agreement was intended only for residents of the region in and around the Rural Municipality of Piney. But he’s heard of cases involving patients who reside in Winnipeg but have a temporary residence or cottage in the area. Those individuals were never supposed to be eligible, he said.

“We need to ensure the agreement becomes more rigid in what it was intended to be,” Goertzen said.

As for services, the minister said planned procedures, such as births, were never meant to be eligible, either.

More “checks and balances” are required, he added, noting that signing consent forms should be part of the process to provide a paper trail.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @randyturner15