We’d like to take this opportunity to heartily endorse an initiative by the Alberta Medical Association to determine the business costs of its members. We hope to encourage them to participate in the online study. It’s really too bad doctors in other areas of the country can’t participate, as well.

The AMA’s study will review the business requirements of AMA members “to better understand the components and variation in costs associated with running a medical practice across Alberta,” president Dr. Noel Grisdale wrote members last month.

Alberta’s effort is by no means new. The British Columbia Medical Association completed a study of its members’ overhead in 2005, but has never made it public. Alberta’s version will not ask members about their personal business costs. Rather, it asks them to agree or disagree with office “models” developed by a consultant for the review.

The AMA’s decision to adopt such a concept is certainly understandable (it’s done to maximize participation), but real numbers would have been much better. Sections supported the model office concept because cost factors could be updated, and it deals with the cost drivers affecting practices, Dr. Grisdale’s letter said.

The online poll identifies a number of practice types based on common characteristics, such as solo, group or hospital-based practices, which can then be modified by specialty, geography, type of remuneration and other factors. It will measure such costs as staffing, office space, medical technology, supplies and capital.

Little is known about the BCMA overhead study since the group no doubt is keeping it as ammunition for future negotiations and allocations. The same can be expected of Alberta’s poll.

Results of the study will likely prove that Alberta is by far Canada’s most expensive place to practise, that what doctors are paid there is warranted and that interprovincial mobility measures should continue to be advanced so doctors can relocate to a place that pays—and treats—them well.—Matt Borsellino, national editor