May 31, 2012
Kim Carter, BC OmbudspersonPO Box 9039 STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC V8W 9A5 Canada
Re: Complaint Review for the Canadian Asociation
of Occupational Therapists-BC Chapter in regards to Insurance Corporation
British Columbia
This
letter is in follow-up to a phone call with your office on May 8, 2012. At that
time, Ms. Kathryn Jeakins spoke with my colleague and fellow CAOT-BC member Salim
Janmohamed about our association’s query as to whether the BC Ombudsperson
would be able to review our complaint with Insurance Corporation of British
Columbia. This letter provides more detail about the nature of our complaint,
efforts taken to resolve it and the outcome we desire in order to determine if
our complaint can indeed be handled by the BC Ombudsperson. The purpose of this
letter is to provide this additional information. It is understood that the BC Ombudsperson
cannot advocate or negotiate for our group.
Occupational therapists are registered healthcare professionals
and since the late eighties, have contracted services on an hourly basis to
ICBC to implement, coordinate and manage rehabilitation for injured motorists.
There is no written contract that governs this relationship between ICBC and
occupational therapists, but there are service provider guidelines and
legislation (Part 7 Benefits) that govern what services we provide.
There are approximately 2000 occupational therapists in British
Columbia and it is estimated approximately 400 have or currently provide
contract services to ICBC through sole practitioner firms ranging up to
multi-practitioner practices.
In 2010, the BC Society of Occupational Therapists (BCSOT, now
replaced by CAOT, BC Chapter) requested a rate increase on behalf of
occupational therapists in BC from ICBC as it had been 3 years since
compensation rates had been increased. After numerous attempts to contact ICBC
about this, Mr. Rob Wilson (Acting Director, ICBC Claims Services) agreed to
increase rates by 6.7% on August 1, 2011 but this was quickly followed by a
retraction email and a promise that the rate increase would be retro-active to
August 1, 2011 and the matter would be resolved shortly. Almost one year later
(and 5 years since occupational therapists had received a previous rate
increase), there has been no resolution to this matter.
As a professional group that is integral in enabling injured
motorists to return to daily activities after an accident, many occupational
therapists have expressed concern that this issue has been repeatedly delayed
and they have been given the “run around” by ICBC. Members have come to their
professional association for support regarding this issue as they feel that
they are being treated unfairly, with little respect and in an unprofessional
manner.
The following table outlines a list of correspondence between the
occupational therapy professional association(s) and ICBC over the past 2
years:
|
Letter from Hilary Drummond, BCSOT President requesting Rate
Increase sent to Steven Comberbach (Manager, Claims Operations Rehab
Services-ICBC)
|
February 2010
|
|
Letters from individual occupational therapy service providers
requesting Increase, sent to Steven Comberbach
|
February and March 2010
|
|
Rob Wilson (Acting Director, Claims Services at ICBC) called H.
Drummond apologized for the delay and asked for a “week or so” to get back to
H. Drummond
|
March 25, 2010
|
|
H. Drummond sent another email to Rob Wilson
|
April 6, 2010
|
|
H. Drummond sent another email to Rob Wilson
|
April 15, 2010
|
|
Rob Wilson called H. Drummond
and said he would send an email with questions on it; (no email was
received in this regard)
|
April 16, 2010
|
|
Letter from Rob Wilson to H. Drummond advising a review of
occupational therapy rates was being initiated
|
July 2010
|
|
Letter from BCSOT President Les Smith to Rob Wilson requesting
response to previous correspondence regarding compensation
|
November 2010
|
|
Email from Rob Wilson to H. Drummond, (former BCSOT President)
advising that a rate proposal was forthcoming in the “next week”
|
December 2010
|
Follow up email from Mary Wallace Poole (BCSOT Executive
Director) to Rob Wilson requesting status update on the rate proposal
|
March 9, 2011
|
|
Follow up email from Les Smith, to Rob Wilson requesting status
update
|
April 5, 2011
|
|
Email from Rob Wilson (“OT rate announcement”) indicating that
effective August 1, 2011, rates would be increased to $96/hour
|
July 29, 2011
|
|
Email from Rob Wilson retracting the previous rate increase
announcement indicating it was an “error”. He apologized for the
miscommunication and provided assurance “that this matter will be resolved
very shortly”. The same email indicated that “any rate increase announced
will be retroactive to August 1, 2011”
|
August 1, 2011
|
|
Several emails sent from individual occupational therapy service
providers to Rob Wilson requesting update to his email of August 1, 2011. No
response received
|
September 2011
|
|
Several emails, phone calls, and one focus group meeting
(between ICBC and small group of occupational therapy service
providers,(November 2011), to review, revise and complete Service Provider
Guidelines
|
September to November 2011
|
Email to Linda Calbick, Manager, Injury Technical and Program
Support, from Salim Janmohamed on behalf of occupational therapy service
providers, requesting an audience with a rate decision maker in upcoming ICBC/CAOT
BC business meeting
|
February 6, 2012
|
|
Face-to-face meeting between CAOT-BC Business Relations Advisory
Committee and ICBC – attendees included Giovanna Boniface, Managing Director,
CAOT-BC; Salim Janmohamed, BRAC member; Lindsey Townsend, BRAC member;
Ricardo Nuno, BRAC member; Pamela Russell, BRAC member; Abdollah Rezazadeh,
BRAC member; Larry Nelson, ICBC Manager Rehabilitation Department; Linda
Calbick, ICBC Manager, Injury Technical and Program Support; Sheryl Kozyniak,
Manager, Claims Stakeholder Services and Edna Ticzon (administrative
support). Discussion of occupational therapy rates and compensation was one
item on the meeting agenda, however, no resolution was provided at that time.
|
February 21, 2012
|
|
Telephone conversation between Giovanna Boniface (Managing
Director, CAOT-BC) and Linda Calbick (ICBC). Request for status update on OT
rate increase. Linda advised that a compensation plan was prepared by Cheryl
Kozniak (ICBC) and that it would go to an executive committee. Prior to this,
the plan would have to be reviewed by Rob Wilson. Giovanna advised that
CAOT-BC would be submitting letters of complaint about this issue to the BC
Ombudsman as well as ICBC (ICBC Fairness Commissioner-Mr. Peter Burns, ICBC
Executive Committee President & CEO- Mr. John Schubert and ICBC Executive
Committee Vice President, Corporate Communications and Stakeholder
Engagement)
|
May 30, 2012
|
Outcome we are seeking
Occupational therapy services providers are requesting
that ICBC fulfill its promise of a rate increase dating back to August 1, 2011
and address the issue of compensation as per many requests dating back 2
years.
CAOT-BC wishes to continue our positive relationship with ICBC and
continues to offer its support to facilitate this outcome. I invite you to meet
to discuss this in more detail.
Giovanna Boniface, OT
Managing Director of CAOT-BC
cc: Peter Burns, Q.C, ICBC Fairness Commissioner- PO Box 86686,
North Vancouver, BC, V7L 4L2
John Schubert,
President & CEO, ICBC Executive Committee- 151 W. Esplanade, North Vancouver, BC, V7M 3H9
Steve Crombie, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Engagement,
ICBC Executive Committee-151 W. Esplanade, North Vancouver, BC, V7M 3H9
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