Busy family doctor tops list of N.B. medical earners for first time

A record 37 New Brunswick doctors were paid more than $1 million by the province for medical services last year and for the first time a general practitioner — not a radiologist — led the list of top billers.

Dr. Sunita MacMullin, a family doctor from Fredericton who relocated to Sussex after the size of her practice became a problem to manage, billed just under $1.7 million during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. She's also the first woman to lead the list of top billers.

MacMullin is away until the new year, according to her office and could not be reached for comment.

It's just the fourth year the province has released amounts it pays medical practitioners following a recommendation made in 2012 by Auditor General Kim MacPherson. 

Last year Dr. Martin Finnegan, a diagnostic radiologist at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont hospital in Moncton led the list, displacing Dr. Stewart MacMillan, a radiologist in Miramichi who topped all earners in the first two years.

This year, Finnegan tied for third on the list and MacMillan tied for fifth, costing the province just over and just under $1.5 million respectively.

Although controversial in other provinces, including Ontario, where doctors have fought to keep their billings secret, the public disclosure of doctor pay in New Brunswick has the official endorsement of the local medical community.    

The province spent $666.6 million on medicare last year and New Brunswick medical society president Dr. Chris Goodyear said the public has a right to see where that money goes.

"The New Brunswick Medical Society supports the publication of payments to physicians," said Goodyear in a statement released by the society. "It provides transparency and accountability to taxpayers on how their provincial health-care budget is spent."

Goodyear is a general surgeon at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton and is himself part of the disclosure. He was paid just under $750,000 by the province last year, in a group tied for 91st on the province's list of medical earners.

New Brunswick has nearly 1,900 practising physicians. The majority earned less than $350,000 from the province last year but the number who make more than $1 million continued to grow.

Former Fredericton doctor happy in Sussex

MacMullin's billings have increased steadily over the four years from just under $1 million in the 2016 fiscal year, when she was tied for 25th on the list, to her current spot at the top.

MacMullin made news in 2017 when she sent a letter to her Fredericton patients informing them she was leaving the city for Sussex because other family doctors in the area complained her practice had grown too large with too many patients in hospital for them to cover for her during off-hours or vacations.

"Every proposal I had was met with a simple, 'No, we're not going to give you any backup,'" MacMullin wrote, in explaining her decision to relocate.

"This in itself is risky for me to be on 24 [hours], seven days a week and never having any vacation.   

"Luckily, my colleagues in Sussex … have welcomed my practice of medicine to the area and have created a healthy system of "on-call" support for one another."

MacMullin is one of several family doctors among the province's top billing physicians. Dr. Luan Le of Saint John billed the province just under $1.4 million last year and appears seventh on the list, and Dr. Gerard Losier of Miramichi tied for eighth for billings of just under $1.3 million.

Losier has long operated one of the largest medical practices in New Brunswick but is better known for donating much of what he earns back to the community.   

According to the Canada Revenue Agency, Losier gave more than $625,000 to Miramichi medical charities in 2018 from his and his wife's foundation — most of that to the local hospital and hospice.

The top-earning specialist in the province last year — and second on the list to MacMullin — was Fredericton ophthalmologist Dr. Kenneth Roberts. He was paid just under $1.6 million. 

Roberts has been second on the list of top medical earners in New Brunswick all four years it has been published.

In total, 37 doctors were paid more than $1 million by the province last year, up from 31 two years ago.

In 2012, MacPherson found doctor billings in New Brunswick operate mostly on the honour system, and she recommended more attention be paid to the issue, including the public disclosure of what doctors charge the province for their services.

"In order for the department to demonstrate proper accountability for over half of a billion dollars in annual spending, we believe the distribution of this spending should be publicly reported and subject to public scrutiny," MacPherson wrote.