A doctor who executes a network of addiction clinics in Ontario, including an Ottawa location that offers a safer opioid supply, is invoicing public insurance of around $ 2.5 million per year.
Dr. Alumman Koka is the only officer and director of Northwood Recovery, who has locations in North York, Hamilton and Manitoulin Island. It operates under the name of North Recovery in Sudbury, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie.
Northwood Recovery opened his first ottawa location in Hintonburg last year, but he silently transferred it to Chinatown this March.
The neighbors in Hintonburg and Chinatown have criticized Koka for prescribing opioid medications to fentanyl users. They say that their patients are exchanging the medications prescribed in the street to obtain harder substances, attracting traffickers and crimes to the area.
The city councilors representing both neighborhoods have urged Northwood Recovery to change their operations or close.
In an interview last month, Koka confirmed that the Ottawa clinic offers a safer supply, a damage reduction approach to help users to replace street medications such as fentanyl with safer prescription narcotics.
Among other treatments, Koka prescribes hydromorphone, which is also known by the commercial name Dilaudid. He confirmed that he meets mainly with patients at the Ottawa clinic remotely through telemedicine.
CBC submitted a request for freedom of information to the Ministry of Health of Ontario that seeks records of Koka’s total billing to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). He reveals that he invoiced just over $ 2.3 million in 2023 and almost $ 2.5 million in 2024.
These totals do not represent Koka’s profits or payment to take home, since at least part of the money would be used to cover the general costs in their clinics, which could include rentals, supplies and administrative staff.
But the totals are well above the typical billing. The average gross clinical payment for Ontario doctors was $ 388,557 in 2022-23, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Payments for the upper quintile, the higher 20 percent of the doctors for billing, were $ 568,432 on average.
CBC also submitted a Koka billing application for telemedicine specifically. He put $ 524,302 for virtual service services in 2024, including video and telephone consultations.
The figures were current as of January 22 of this year. Documents include a note that doctors still have a three -month period to present additional processing claims.
Koka had previously appeared in a Toronto Star database of highly paid doctors published in 2019. According to the Sudbury star, which cited the reports of the Toronto star, Koka billed $ 1.5 million in 2018-19, which placed it in the upper percent of the doctors classified by Ohip Billing.
Koka did not answer a request this week with detailed questions about his turnover 2023 and 2024. He did not explain how he can personally see enough patients to invoice millions of dollars per year, or if he is delegating part of the care.
But in a March interview, CBC asked him if he was still one of the best paid doctors in Ontario.
“I am not sure of that, but I will tell you that I am probably one of the most workers in Ontario,” he said at that time.
Previously warned for telemedicine practices
Doug Angus, Professor Emeritus at the Telford School of Administration at the University of Ottawa, said Koka would have to see a very high volume of patients to generate such money.
Angus, who specializes in health economy, said that Koka’s agency in virtual care could allow him to travel patients quickly.
“That has changed the game completely,” he said. “There are many general doctors who would love to have that kind of situation, but there is no way that they can generate such gross income with face -to -face visits.”
He said the ministry has tried to control high wallets, but it is difficult to monitor. He said that they have not yet addressed the question of how many patients a doctor can see effectively.
Koka’s membership page on the website of the College of Physicians and Surgeons shows that it has 15 places of practice, as well as hospital privileges at the Health Sciences North regional hospital in Sudbury. Your medical professional corporation has 13 different addresses.
The university warned it in 2019, after a patient complained that Koka did not meet him at all. Instead, a medical assistant in his office prescribed Metadona after a virtual appointment.
The University found no sign that the medical assistant had adequate training, and pointed out that delegating care is only appropriate in the context of an existing medical-patient relationship, which did not exist in that case.
Somerset Coun. Ariel Troer met with Koka last month, along with the MPP of the Catherine McKenney area. On a publication on its website, Troer said he insisted on envelopes for patients and better safety protocols during the meeting.
She said the clinic has hired a security guard and a nurse and has committed to eliminating people from the program if they divert their medications.
In his March interview with CBC, Koka said Northwood Recovery takes the drug diversion very seriously. He said that patients who are exchanging or selling their medications are discharged from the program.
According to Koka, even suspicions can lead the clinic to put patients under a stricter regime where they should take doses on the site.
He said that telemedicine has increased the number of people you can see, allowing more people to access the treatment of addictions.
“Either through videoconference or if it is in person, the interaction is the same,” he said.
