March 2025 Update for Physicians from Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors

March 2025

Dear Dr. Manitoba

I’m pleased to share an update on behalf of the Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors on issues that may be important to you as a member. Your Board and the staff continue to work to ensure all physicians and medical learners have the resources and support they need to thrive in medicine and provide the best possible care to Manitobans.

2% Increase Coming April 1

As part of our current Physician Services Agreement, physicians will receive a 2% increase on all fee-for-service and alternate funded remuneration. This across-the-board approach will help to ensure physician remuneration remains competitive with other provinces. This will help our continued retention and recruitment efforts and to offset the increasing costs of practice.

Your fees and remuneration should automatically increase on April 1, 2025. This builds on a 2% increase last year, as well as significant market adjustments and improvements for many surgical, medical, and family medicine specialists in the first year of the Agreement. An additional 2% increase is scheduled for April 1, 2026.

While this Agreement doesn’t expire for another two years, we have already started our work to prepare for negotiations:

Over 1,000 members provided valuable feedback as part of our Annual Member Survey that is vital to early analysis and issue identification.
Economic analysis is underway to compare Manitoba with other provinces.
We attended a joint meeting with Medical Associations from all provinces to learn more about recent developments and anticipated challenges facing physicians across Canada.

Later this spring, we will be reaching out to form working groups to help guide our work, to ensure we are negotiating on the top issues and priorities for our members. We will also be seeking the views of the physicians of tomorrow, including both residents and students, to ensure the next Physician Services Agreement will help to retain them in our province.

As always, send your questions to our Practice Advice and Compensation experts by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

2025 CPD Rebate Available

Last year, the Board approved a major redesign of our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) rebate available to all fully licensed physicians, offering a new Claim-As-You-Learn approach similar to a health spending account.

I’m happy to report that your 2025 rebate bank is now available. This means you can start claiming expenses related to your CPD this year anytime now, as part of our new easier claims process with faster reimbursement.

The new Claim-As-You-Learn CPD Rebate simplifies the rules and eliminates the wait. This means an easier way to claim expenses, faster payments, and likely bigger rebates too. It’s like a health spending account, for your continuing professional development.

Every eligible physician starts with a $4,000 bank for CPD expenses, and that’s on top of the $1,000 CPD Credit Rebate you received when you renewed your annual Doctors Manitoba membership. Some physicians are eligible for an additional supplement, such as rural or northern physicians who must travel further for events or salaried physicians under certain collective agreements.

Reminder, you have until June 30, 2025 to claim your 2024 expenses.

Here's how it works.

Log in to our DRMB Portal to access Claim-As-You-Learn
View your current CPD bank
Submit CPD events, such as a conference or workshop, plus associated travel, accommodations, and overhead expenses.
Submit other CPD expenses, such as subscriptions, publishing journal articles, learning equipment, and more.

You will find shorter claim forms with simpler rules and no need to upload receipts or certificates (but keep them in case of audit).

You’re Invited to Two Special Events

I’m excited to request your attendance at two special events this spring. I hope to connect with you at our Annual Awards Gala on May 10, and a special in-person event on April 23.

Join us on April 23, for HeartBeat 2025, to celebrate the excellence and diversity of our profession. Connect with physicians, students and residents at this special in-person event. We’ve planned a program that includes a look back at our history and our future. You’ll be inspired by leaders who will share their journeys to breaking through at our fireside chat. There is no charge for members.

This is your formal notice of the 2025 AGM that will happen in conjunction with HeartBeat2025 at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. At this year’s AGM you’ll have the opportunity to vote on extending membership to international medical graduates in the medical licensure program. The AGM Agenda can be found at the link below, and other AGM documents will be available before the event.

There is no charge for members to attend.

→ Learn more and register here.

Come celebrate the achievements of our annual award winners at our Gala on May 10. I invite you to read more about our winners and take advantage of our early bird ticket sales until April 15. We anticipate another sold-out event for 2025, with proceeds supporting medical relief charity Team Broken Earth.

Other Recent Developments

Meeting with Health Minister

In January, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara met with our full Board of Directors to hear from physicians. We raised several concerns and priorities that we know are important to the broader medical community:

Expanding capacity to improve access, including eliminating administrative burdens like sick notes and repeated log-ins on hospital computers, as well as physician-led team-based care.
The challenges with diagnostic imaging requisitions, including the reliance on fax machines, the backlog at central intake, and the lack of integration to track progress and get results.
The need for more support on recruitment, particularly for physician practices trying to recruit out-of-province doctors to Manitoba.
The province’s ER strategy, and the lack of physician engagement to contribute our ideas and expertise.
Forced transfers that occur from some hospitals and PCHs when patients opt for Medical Assistance in Dying.
The need to expand free birth control to include copper IUDs.

The Minister not only listened, but discussed the concerns and ideas that made us feel heard. Our President and CEO continue to engage with the government on these and other issues, to ensure physicians concerns and front and centre to inform government decision-making about health care.

Engaging Shared Health

Our Board met earlier this month with the new interim CEO for Shared Health, Dr. Chris Christodoulou, and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jose Francois. The main topic was working together to improve physician engagement when key decisions are made in the health system that impacts your day-to-day work.

This was a good and open conversation, helping to chart a path to bringing to life a commitment we negotiated in the current Physician Services Agreement to require physician consultation on changes in health care. We provided several examples of where engagement has been improving on some topics, but we also highlighted some areas where engagement has been lacking, such as on the government’s new ER strategy, plans to roll out electronic record systems, and on reducing administrative burden.

Please remember, if you are seeing proposed or actual changes that negatively impacts your work, you should engage your medical lead and/or contact the team at DRMB for guidance by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Supporting the Business and Professional Obligations of Physicians

The Board endorsed an action plan earlier this year to develop more supports and resources for the extensive business and professional obligations that come with practicing as a physician. This isn’t just about clinic owners, but rather a broader view about the loads most physicians carry in managing their practice.

The action plan follows an extensive needs assessment, including feedback from hundreds of physicians through past surveys, plus interviews and group meetings.

Our staff have formed a team to lead this work, including engaging MNP to help develop resources and toolkits to help physicians at every stage of your medical career.

We welcome your continued input, which you can share with the team by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. You will see updates on this project in the weeks and months to come.

Leadership Begins with Self-Awareness PLI Course

DRMB and CMA Physician Leadership Institute are offering this 6-week online accredited course for physicians in their first 5 years of practice who want to make meaningful change at work, develop skills for working with different personality types, and find ways to engage yourself and your colleagues. We welcome applications from all practicing physicians. Applicants in their first 5 years of practice will be prioritized for this course. Course requires time commitment of 3 – 4 hours of self-led activities, and a 1‑hour facilitated online weekly session.

Learn more.

Sincerely,

Dr. Randy Guzman

Doctors Manitoba Board President