Telus Health will change subscription-based health service after illegal extra-billing allegations

Telus Health has made changes to its subscription-based health service in order to reach a settlement with B.C.’s Medical Services Commission, which had alleged illegal extra-billing.

Telus’s LifePlus program, a fee-based model that charges patients thousands a year, will no longer offer physician services to new patients, said Health Minister Adrian Dix. However, people already enrolled in the program will get to keep their family doctor to maintain “continuity of care,” Dix said.

The LifePlus program will no longer offer publicly funded, medically necessary services. Those will instead be offered through Telus’s virtual walk-in clinics, MyCare, which are covered by the Medical Services Commission.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to uphold the Medicare Protection Act, which is in place to preserve our publicly administered health-care system,” Dix said at a news conference in Victoria on Wednesday.