Premier disputes AHS documents showing prices of private, publicly funded surgeries

Alberta's premier disputes internal numbers showing some private surgical contracts charge almost double the cost of a procedure at a hospital.

Premier Danielle Smith suggested Alberta Health Services is “making up numbers” that show some chartered surgical facilities (CSF) in the province are billing taxpayers nearly double what the same procedures cost at a hospital.

Documents obtained by numerous media outlets including CTV News show an internal chart of cost comparisons for knee, hip and shoulder replacements.

In one email, which was sent by the former AHS CEO to a bureaucrat with Alberta Health, it indicates the price one CSF in Edmonton was charging the government for a knee replacement procedure was $8,510.

The AHS cost for the same surgery was just over $4,000.

“When AHS claims that they have a lower cost structure and they only include half the costs, I’m sorry, there’s no credibility to that,” Smith said on Monday.

“I think it goes to why we need to have more transparency, because we can’t be making up numbers with Alberta Health Services in order to make it look like charter surgical facilities are more costly.”

Smith said it was not an “apples to apples” comparison, because the AHS costing doesn’t include the price for implant devices and diagnostic imaging.

However, the internal AHS pricing chart explains those costs aren’t included because they “are already covered by AHS.”

The former AHS CEO who sent the email, Athana Mentzelopoulos, has filed a $1.7-million lawsuit alleging a government “kickback” scheme and political pressure to sign costlier contracts.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and a statement of defence has not yet been filed.

Given the allegations and many questions, critics are calling for a halt to private surgical facilities—at least while multiple investigations into the alleged procurement issues are ongoing.

“Until the auditor general comes back with a detailed breakdown of what these costs are and how it’s laid out, we’re not going to truly know what Albertans have paid for services,” said Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.

“What it shows, time and again, is that public services are a lower cost than the private sector for profit models that always seem to cost more.”

Smith would not commit to a full public inquiry of the allegations, instead pointing to the auditor general’s investigation and plans for an independent investigation.

With files from The Canadian Press