Hello,
My insurance will only reimburse the costs of the electrolysis treatments if it is being performed by a physician, ie. with an MD.
Are you aware of any doctors that perform this procedure in Ottawa or Toronto? I am having a hard time finding any…
Thanks for your help!
I have run into that problem with benefit insurance plans. I think it is an unfair requirement because legislatively it is not required that an electrologist be a qualified doctor. I have never heard of a doctor performing electrolysis in my time.
I would suggest talking to your employer and see if they can have that requirement changed.
If your electrologist is working in a physician’s office, he/she can “run the payment for treatment” through their system, i.e., the doctor bills the insurance (not the electrologist).
I have done this a few times with the doc I work with. Amazingly, I once had a Swiss guy and his insurance paid me directly for his treatment (althought we initially billed through the doctor). Yes, is was a diagnosed “medical condition.”
Perhaps if you find an electrologist working in a physician’s office you can have this done? It’s worth a try.
If I remember correctly, there was a whole dust up in the 90’s, or later, where Canadian doctors tried to get things set up like the French, such that electrolysis could only be performed out of a doctor’s office. The fall out from that was that while Canadian insurance used to regularly pay electrolysis practitioners directly, without regard to them being sole practitioners, or working in a doctor’s office, to at least some period of time when they paid no one for it under any circumstances.
The relationship between the two professions has never been the same since.
Good luck finding someone who is working with, or in a doctor’s office, actually doing electrolysis. You may need to find a doctor who is doing LASER, whose tech is also an electrolysis practitioner.
Thanks for all the input!
I was able to find ONE clinic that is supervised by a physician but the treatment is performed by a medical aesthetician.
I will have to call my insurance to verify if this is sufficient.
All they care about is that the doctor is the payee and will bill them directly.