A Winnipeg doctor suspended for six months has admitted to submitting “inappropriate and unethical” claims by billing for visits that didn’t occur and rigging prescription renewals to pad his bottom line.
Dr. Daljit Singh Gill, an internal medicine physician, billed Manitoba Health multiple times for communication with pharmacies based on a single request by changing the dates of the requests, an inquiry from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba has found.
Patients were often without their medication as a result of his actions.
He also submitted claims for services where a patient record was not created, for virtual visits that never happened and for family care conferences where a family member was not present.
“Dr. Gill unethically and inappropriately submitted claims, or caused claims to be submitted on his behalf, under (the Health Services Insurance Act), for his own benefit,” the written decision published online by the college reads.
“This places a significant inappropriate financial burden on the publicly funded health-care system and is a betrayal of the public trust.”
In October, the college announced his suspension after finding him guilty of professional misconduct. It posted a note on its website, but didn’t reveal details about its investigation.
The inquiry panel found him guilty of breaching college bylaws and standards, demonstrating a “lack of skill, knowledge, and judgment in the practice of medicine” and demonstrating an unfitness to practise medicine.
The panel ordered a six-month suspension of his licence to start at a later date, a fine, practice restrictions, requirements for remediation and costs.
Gill graduated from the University of Manitoba faculty of medicine in 2008 and completed post-graduate training in internal medicine in 2012. He has worked at four clinics since that time and at personal care homes.
He is not listed on the college physician directory, but in October, his profile on the college’s website listed his primary practice address as Medigroup Health Centre on Kenaston Boulevard.
The investigation revealed that Gill had billed Manitoba Health $188,077.50 for communications with pharmacists in March 2022-23, while the “vast majority” of internal medicine physicians billed less than $10,000 in the same 12-month period.
The probe found he billed $91,640 in the same year for family care conferences. The second-highest billing that year from a single physician in Manitoba, comparatively, was $34,560.
Despite being subject to audits and signing an undertaking to improve the management of his practice, Gill delayed reviewing diagnostic results, did not properly document patient care and acted unprofessionally. His actions resulted in multiple complaints from patients. On one occasion, he tried to mislead the college while a patient complaint was being investigated.
“Dr. Gill’s misconduct and deficiencies are serious and concerning,” the decision document reads. “His failure to adequately document his involvement in patient care and review diagnostic results in a timely way is widespread in terms of the number of years and across his practice.”
Gill was called out for an instance in which he roped in a patient into a dispute he had with the owner of a pharmacy where he had worked. He encouraged the patient to file a complaint about the owner.
Gill is required to pay restitution to Manitoba Health for the “improper billings,” although the amount is yet to be negotiated. He was fined $5,000 and must pay $36,126 to the college to cover the cost of the investigation.
He will be required to complete an ethics and professionalism course and will have restrictions imposed on his practice when his suspension ends. Those restrictions could include supervision, requirements for documentation and patient volume, and required communication with health-care providers.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.