AMA welcomes new provincial compensation model for family doctors

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on March 26, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

Hundreds of doctors have already signed up for the province’s new family doctor compensation model, scheduled to kick in April 1.

Developed in partnership with the Alberta Medical Association, the model is designed to not only support physicians in their essential work but also to enhance access to family doctors across the province.

The model incentivizes maintaining large panels of 500 or more, providing after hours care and enhancing team-based care, the province says, and aims to ensure Alberta’s family doctors are competitively paid while promoting patient-focused care.

“This new model will strengthen comprehensive, cradle-to-grave primary care,” said Dr. Shelley Duggan, president of the Alberta Medical Association. “These practices are the foundation of our health-care system. The model will help us to retain the family medicine specialists and rural generalists we already have and will go a long way toward attracting more to Alberta.”

As of March 24, 789 family physicians have signed up to receive compensation through the new model, said Alberta’s government.

“Family physicians welcome this announcement. For us, it signals the government’s commitment to making primary care a priority within our health-care system,” said Dr. Sarah Bates, president of the Section of Family Medicine with the Alberta Medical Association. “I know many physicians are eager to begin working under this new model so they can stabilize their practices and focus on providing high-quality care to their patients.”

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