Urgent Locum Tenens Program for Specialists

Community Eligibility:
For a community to be eligible for the Urgent Locum Tenens Program for Specialists:

• The community must be designated as an underserviced community in Northern Ontario, and
• The specialist complement is two or fewer; or the community has specialist vacancies and is actively recruiting for full time staff. 

Physician Remuneration:

Expenses

• Written approval must be obtained from the hospital/community, provided through HFO MRA, prior to starting a locum.
• Original receipts must be sent to HFO MRA with a completed Specialist Locum Physician Expense Form (see below). Copies of credit card vouchers are not acceptable receipts.
• Rental of a compact car and gasoline (with original receipts) covered.
• Single standard accommodation covered.
• Private stays with family, friends or colleagues are encouraged. $30 per night for gratuitous lodging expenses is allowed. No receipt is required.
• Locum physicians living outside of Ontario will be reimbursed for travel from the Ontario border if they drive. If travelling by air, will be reimbursed up to the amount of full fare from the nearest point of entry into Ontario (Montreal or Winnipeg), or from Toronto to the Ontario destination.
• Airfare is based on economy class. The receipt is the last page(s) of the airline ticket, or a copy of the electronic ticket.
• The kilometre rate for use of a personal vehicle is 41¢/km.

Non-allowable Expenses

• Meals
• Travel outside of Ontario (to and from the province)
• CMPA insurance (required to join the program)
• Costs to obtain a Certificate of Registration to practise medicine in Ontario
• Personal long distance telephone charges

Honorarium

• Locum physicians are entitled to a $300 honorarium for each approved travel or work day.
• Only one honorarium may be claimed each day and it cannot be pro-rated.

Travel Time
Locum physicians are eligible for reimbursement of necessary travel time, up to a maximum of 4 days per assignment. The following rates apply:

• $459 per 3-4 hours
• $918 per 6-8 hours
• $1377 per 9-12 hours

Fees

Clinical Locum Assignments:

• 1 sessional equals 3-4 clinical hours at $459.
• 2 sessionals equal 6-8 clinical hours at $918.
• 3 sessionals equal 9-12 clinical hours at $1377.

A maximum of 3 sessionals can be claimed per day travel and work combined.

On-call Locum Assignments:

• Locum physicians must be on-call for a full 24 hours and must be present in the locum community to be eligible for a sessional payment ($1377).

Partial on-call work may only be claimed on assignment arrival and departure days at the following rates:

• 1 sessional equals at least 8 hours of on-call coverage at $459.
• 2 sessionals equal at least 16 hours of on-call coverage at $918.

Fee-For-Service

• The locum physician is expected to bill fee-for-service to OHIP on days where billings exceed the sessional rate; bill fee-for-service in accordance with the OHIP Schedule of Benefits.
• The locum physician may either bill fee-for-service to OHIP, or sessional rates to HFO MRA on any approved locum day, but claiming both types of payment for the same locum day is prohibited. 

Northern Specialist Locum Programs Expense Forms & Application: Specialist Locum Physician Expense Forms For Submission of expenses and dates worked prior to April 1, 2009, please use this version of the expense form. For submission of expenses and dates worked on or after April 1, 2009, please use this updated version of the expense form. Application for Northern Specialist Locum Programs