Ontario's family doctors may opt for a capitation payment system

Family doctors in Canada's most populous and richest province, Ontario, have been offered a new way of being paid for medical services.

The family health network plan, under which doctors work in teams with other health professionals and are paid through either a capitation or a revised fee for service, was worked out in talks between the Ontario Medical Association and the provincial government in its attempt to reform provincial primary health care.

The offer comes at a time when Canada's national healthcare system is being widely debated. An interim report by a federally appointed, one man royal commission, which was presented …