Atlantic provinces have not been known to pay family doctors well, and New Brunswick has been no exception. Between low fee codes and high taxation rate, New Brunswick has had significant issues in getting even close to enough family doctors for their population.

However, the province has recently taken a stab at an alternative funding model, called FMNB (Family Medicine New Brunswick). It cuts the fee codes per visit down by half, but pays a panel payment per year per patient to make up the difference, and also offers to pay some overhead for physicians, including a portion of the cost of nursing staff. Interesting, and laudably, this new model has some allowances to incentivize a doctor getting paid for some of the work the clinic nursing team carries out. We like that this keeps physicians at the helm of their clinic ships, but these options likely need to be expanded to justify the full cost of physicians employing their own clinic RNs/LPNs. We think this model could work out to paying family doctors a bit more if they have very large panels, but for more reasonable panel sizes, their fee-for-service model is still probably better to stick with.

Finally, just like Quebec, there is a total lack of transparent detail on the perks offered to New Brunswick physicians, so we have no idea how they financially support physicians with continuing medical payments or parental benefits. New Brunswick, please make these details transparent!
New Brunswick is going to need to match what most of the other Atlantic provinces are figuring out – pay family doctors more and incentivize them after listening to what they need to do their jobs well!