Alberta Health to make announcement on dental fees
Keith Gerein
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman will hold a news conference Wednesday morning to make an announcement on dental fees.
Controversy has swirled around the issue since mid-August, when Hoffman publicly blasted a new fee guide from the Canada Dental Association and College.
She felt the guide — Canada’s first set of recommended fees in 20 years — didn’t do enough to help patients facing some of the highest dental prices in the country.
“I’m making my opinion very clear … that I’m not satisfied,” she said at the time, demanding the association “get back to the drawing board.”
The new guide called for a three-per-cent reduction from average rates Canada dentists currently charge for the most common procedures.
The association insisted that was enough to create sufficient “downward pressure” for dentists to reduce their rates, but Hoffman disagreed. She even suggested she could use her power under the Health Professions Act to impose new regulations on dentists if the association failed to revise the guide.
Categorised in: Canadian News