Please be advised that our annual membership renewals, which are normally sent around August 1, will be delayed this year. You will receive your membership renewal early September, and the 30-day deadline to pay will be adjusted as well.

We are sending our membership renewals out later this year as we work on the final stages of our new member portal. Designed based on member feedback, you will be able to log in, renew your membership, update your personal information, and view member-only content like a new uninsured services guide. This fall we will add new features allowing you to manage your insurance, benefits and connect with other members in a discussion forum. 

This year, a Doctors Manitoba membership will cost $1,845. This completes a two-year increase to membership fees approved by the Board last year (see the President letter explaining the increase here). This will be only the third increase in fees over the last fifteen years, with our membership fee remaining well below the average for all provincial medical associations of $2250.

We also want to let you know how 100% of the fee increase is being invested directly into the priorities identified by our members. We are expanding our services, increasing our public advocacy, and funding more staff positions to serve and represent you better. Here are key updates on how these investments are delivering results for members:

• Physician Health and Wellness. In our survey last year, 89% of members said they wanted more resources for physician health. This year, our survey found concerning levels of burnout, depression and recent suicidal ideation. As a result, we are expanding physician health supports, including expansions for MDCare and Physicians at Risk, as well as new CBTm and peer support services. We opened a new office for Physicians at Risk, extended peer support to Rural and Northern areas, and enhanced access to urgent independent medical exams. Learn more in this recent President’s Letter.
  
• Support for the business side of medicine, including during audits: 88% of members wanted to see Doctors Manitoba offer more support on the business side of practicing medicine, and 86% of members wanted us to expand our capacity to support members through government audits into their billings. We have added a new staff member to our negotiations team, and we’ve initially focused business support and guidance on pandemic-related issues. Our expanded negotiations team is also actively preparing right now to negotiate the next Master Agreement for physicians. We are also supporting several members through government audits, and we are ready should more members face audits as some elected officials have suggested could be coming as they add more auditors. If you need assistance in any of these areas, contact us at practicesupport@​doctorsmanitoba.​ca.
  
• Increase public awareness and advocacy activities: 80% of members wanted to see us continue and expand our public awareness campaigns. We hear regularly from members who want us to advocate about a variety of issues and priorities. Based on member feedback in this year’s survey, we are focusing our public awareness campaigns and advocacy on the issues you’ve identified as priorities, with more campaigns starting this fall. All of this work is helping to profile how physicians care deeply about the health and wellness of Manitobans, while also putting physician priorities centre stage. We are using these resources to focus public awareness on priority issues like prevention and living healthy, the pandemic backlog, and more. Just last month, our advocacy work helped to convince the province to withdraw a record keeping regulation that would have added 72 more minutes per day in additional documentation!