• Subject Areas
   – Energy & the Environment
   – First Nations
   – Health
   – Justice
   – Labour Market & Education
   – Regulatory Impacts
   – Research & Development
   – Safety
• Techniques
• Publications
• HBHC Evaluation

Ontario Dental Association

The Ontario Dental Association (ODA) first established a fee guide for dental services in 1958. Over the years, the association has maintained the guide, introducing new services and changing values to reflect the current practice of dentistry in the province. A number of anomalies have crept into the guide. At its May 1992 meeting, the ODA Board of Governors asked the Economics of Practice Committee to develop a revised guide that is:

• Internally consistent in terms of the allowances for time and responsibility for the fees contained in the guide.

• Reflective of current dentistry practice in Ontario.

• Established on a basis that will provide a framework for subsequent adjustments.

In Phase I of the review, we summarized the literature on establishing professional fees in health care, visited a number of dental offices to examine the practical implications of alternative designs, and developed recommendations on the overall approach for the subsequent phases. In Phase II of the review, we developed and tested the detailed methods that were recommended in Phase I. This involved the design, pre-test and field test of the methods to capture the time to complete the services described in the guide. As well, Phase II tested the methods to estimate responsibility factors and establish the basis for extrapolating time and responsibility for the less-frequently occurring services.

In Phase III we implemented the design and summarized the data that will support the ODA in its development of a revised Fee Guide for General practitioners.