Calgary doc forced to pay back $20K to patient’s estate over improper billing practices

A Calgary doctor is being made to pay back more than $20,000 after being found to have double-dipped on billing and charged excessive fees for laboratory tests.The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta announced on July 18 Dr. Bruce Hoffman must pay $20,762.49 to the estate of a patient and will be suspended from practice for one month. Dr. Hoffman is also required to take and pass a course on professional ethics and boundaries and must pay back 30% of the costs of the investigation and hearing.The sanctions centre around a complaint from the husband of a woman who was a patient of Dr. Hoffman’s until her death in 2019. The college found that Dr. Hoffman had billed both a patient and the public health system for the same visit, in contravention to the college’s standards of practice on billing, the Alberta government’s Health Professions Act and the Canadian Medical Association’s code of ethics. Dr. Hoffman’s clinic, the Hoffman Centre specializes in combining contemporary medicine with functional medicine, a form of alternative medicine. During the hearings, Dr. Hoffman acknowledged the double billing, but argued that he should be able to bill the provincial healthcare system for contemporary medicine practices and bill the patient for his functional medicine practice.However, the tribunal said Dr. Hoffman “failed to delineate which and separate those charges and reduce the fees charged to the Patient where he also charged Alberta Health for his services.”The tribunal also found that Dr. Hoffman billed the province for visits with the patient without creating any chart records for billings for the patient, as required by the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act. In addition, Dr. Hoffman was found guilty of unprofessional conduct over allegations of excessive billing for private laboratory testing. The Calgary physician testified that his clinic tacked on an average fee of $250 to cover miscellaneous expenses—such as shipping and handling, the cost of dry ice, and office overhead—and said this was necessary given that many of these lab tests were done in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Hoffman’s legal team also argued that the fees charged to send samples to labs were not a “product” covered by the college’s Standard of Practice on Sale of Products by Regulated Members, but a “service” that is not covered by the healthcare system.The tribunal ruled that while it is acceptable to charge fees directly relating to the costs associated with the lab test service, the fees cannot be to cover general operational costs. In addition, the tribunal rejected Dr. Hoffman’s argument that the lab tests were a “service” rather than a “product.”“While the clinic does provide a service by collecting samples in certain instances and sending the samples for testing at labs in the U.S. or Europe, part of the process involves a product, and that product is clearly used for the purpose of diagnosing disease, disorders or injuries in a patient,” it wrote in its decision. The college says Dr. Hoffman has appealed the tribunal’s decisions and has asked the college council to pause the tribunal’s orders pending the appeal.

Calgary doc forced to pay back $20K to patient’s estate over improper billing practices

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