What is ACCA?

​​My name is Scott Monette, BSc, owner of Ocean Pier clinics and myHealthco.ca. In 2020, facing a wave of physician retirements that threatened our clinic’s viability and left patients without care, we introduced the Annual Continuity of Care Allowance (ACCA) with unanimous support from our physicians and staff.

As a clinic, we must help our physicians meet College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC) Practice Standards, including those in “Closing or Leaving a Medical Practice” and “Primary Care Provision in Walk-in and Multi-Registrant Clinics.” These standards require actionable plans for patient continuity. Our ACCA program supports this by funding physician recruitment and retention.

ACCA’s purpose is to ensure long-term continuity of care for our patients. As an ACCA participant, you are next in line for attachment to another Ocean Pier physician if your current doctor leaves. It does not change your current level of care or provide faster access.

We actively participate in government recruitment programs, but results have been limited. To meet the ongoing shortage, we use a professional recruiter at approximately $40,000 per physician. ACCA takes a grassroots, community-funded approach to this challenge, allowing the program to continue functioning effectively.
The program fully complies with the Medicare Protection Act (link: https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statureg/96286_01#section17). Key points:

• ACCA is optional.
• It is offered to all patients, including those who declare financial duress (no one is denied care).
• Continuity of care is a CPSBC-mandated standard, not an MSP benefit, so it falls outside subsection (1) per section 17(2)(b).
• It applies only to existing attached patients; new patients come via the Health Connect Registry without regard to ACCA participation.
• Payment does not guarantee attachment to a physician. Funds support overall recruitment, benefiting the entire clinic community.

We remain committed to sustaining high-quality, continuous care for our patients.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reply.
Sincerely, Scott Monette, BSc Owner, Ocean Pier Clinics & myHealthco.ca

ACCA in Detail

Reassignment Process When a Physician Leaves

• All existing Ocean Pier patients — ACCA and non-ACCA alike — remain fully attached patients of the clinic with equal access to care.
• There is no scenario in which a long-standing non-ACCA patient becomes unattached while ACCA patients are reassigned.
• In practice, we re-attach the entire panel of the departing physician to an incoming doctor. This means many non-ACCA patients are attached even before many ACCA patients.
• Importantly, incoming physicians are available because of the recruitment funding generated by ACCA participants. In that sense, ACCA patients who still have their own doctor are effectively helping fund seamless continuity of care for non-participating patients who have lost their physician.

All patients at Ocean Pier Medical Clinic are treated equally. The current reality in British Columbia is already a clear two-tier system: patients who have a family doctor versus those who do not. ACCA was designed to shrink that gap by improving recruitment and retention, not to create new divisions inside our clinic.
Non-ACCA patients are treated the same as ACCA participants who declare financial duress: they receive full care and are attached to new physicians as capacity becomes available. There is no difference in the quality of care or how any patient is treated.
Key Realities of the Program

1. ACCA gives control back into the hands of the patients and creates more accountability from the clinic to the patient. Before ACCA, patients had no control over the continuity of their care or any vehicle to help manage it.
2. The historical “automatic reassignment” was not working reliably — which is why so many patients across Victoria were left without doctors when physicians retired. Our clinic has grown from one to four locations in four years largely because of ACCA’s success and help from community partners.
3. Everyone benefits, even non-participants. Patients who choose not to join ACCA still gain from the program because the additional funding helps us recruit more physicians overall. When new doctors arrive, non-ACCA patients are still attached.
4. Once the current physician shortage eases and we have sufficient doctors in the community, the need for ACCA disappears and the program would become unnecessary. At that point, attachment happens naturally for everyone. This of course is contingent on existing physicians not leaving and not needing to be replaced, which underscores the foundational necessity of the program.
5. It can only “fail” into a two-tier outcome if it doesn’t exist. If participation is too low for the program to function, it simply ends — returning us to the previous situation where patients were often left unattached when doctors departed. In that sense, the two-tier risk only exists in the absence of the program.
6. If the shortage of physicians ever ends, the two-tier concern ends. With adequate physician supply, no patient (ACCA or not) would be left behind. The current two-tier reality in BC healthcare is “attached vs. unattached”, and ACCA is a practical bridge to reduce that gap.

The $99 fee supports enhanced recruitment and retention efforts that simply did not exist before. It is not a charge for core medical care. The program is entirely optional, and we provide full assistance for patients facing financial hardship so that no one is excluded for financial reasons.

More Testimonials

"Thanks Scott.  Thanks again for a personalized response.  My husband and I are grateful for your clinic and services!"
​-B. from Sidney

"Thank you for your letter, Scott! Tom has now seeing a doctor in Sidney thank, in no small part, to your work in bringing good medical care to Sidney, and I'm sure, helping to facilitate him acquiring much needed medical attention. The ACCA is a small price to pay for this outcome." 
​-B. from Sidney

"Very happy to support the Annual Continuity of Care program! Thanks for your commitment to your patients."
-S. from Victoria, BC

"I’m a new patient with the clinic and I just received the email about the ACCA. I find that’s a wonderful idea to help the continuity and access to doctors. Thank you. The Birch Buildings Clinic staff and doctors are really helpful, compassionate and professional
Thank you very much for all what you do"
-I. from Victoria, BC

"Thank you … that is a GIFT with so many Greater Victoria/BC residents with no primary care/family doctor. The ACCA program is answered -prayer. Thanks for all you do"
-D. Victoria, BC

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