A request for a class action suit has been filed against the provincial health ministry and Quebec's health insurance board over extra billing by some doctors and clinics.
The request for the suit was filed yesterday in Superior Court by Philippe Leveille but made public today.
Leveille and his lawyers allege that two Montreal eye clinics regularly charged patients extra fees for an anasthesiological agent, which are drugs that are supposed to be covered by the government.
But he and his lawyers believe that many Montreal clinics and doctors are charging patients extra fees or up to 10 times the cost of drugs they're supposed to be covered for.
They allege that provincial health insurance board RAMQ tolerated this illegal practice. So Leveille and his lawyers believe several hundred thousand Quebecers could have been illegally billed this way.
The College de Medecins and former health minister Rejean Hebert recognized the problem and the new health minister Gaetan Barrette also acknowledged the extra charges when he was head of the Federation of Quebec's Medical Specialists.
He called the charges a trick of the trade that allowed doctors to defray the costs of running their private clinics.
Leveille's initiative is asking all Quebecers who paid extra for anaesthetic drugs or agents to be part of the class action suit.
They have created a website, Surfacturation.ca, to help those who might have been charged unfairly.
Leveille was part of another class action suit against the government on behalf of patients treated for macular degeneration. That suit was settled for $6 million.
