2024 – 2025 Fee Schedule Q & A

The 2024-25 Fee Schedule, effective July 1, 2024,is now available on the CCOA website. To ensure practitioners have the most amount of information regarding these changes, the CCOA has prepared a selection of anticipated questions below.

Why are some fees increasing in 2024-25?

Rather than increasing yearly fees across the board for all regulated members, the CCOA is increasing specific fees to help offset costs. Most increases in fees are avoidable by adhering to CCOA requirements.

How does the CCOA set its fees?

    There are many factors that determine a regulatory body’s fees. The major factors are:
  • Number of regulated members. Generally, there is an economy of scale in regulatory work. With more regulated members, costs and expenses can be spread over more individuals. The CCOA is a relatively small college with roughly 1300 regulated members.
  • The overall compliance of the profession and cooperation with the regulator. The higher the overall, proactive, compliance with regulatory requirements, the less programming needed from the regulator to ensure the public interest is protected.  When there is moderate to low overall cooperation with the regulator, more programming and monitoring of the profession is needed to ensure protection of the public interest.
  • The volume and complexity of complaints is a major driver of regulatory costs.
  • Legal limitations on the College’s ability to recover costs of discipline from regulated members who are found guilty of professional misconduct.
  • Whether regulatory programs include registration of professional corporations and equipment. CCOA must register professional corporations and equipment.
  • The regulatory reserves that must be maintained for professional standards and sexual abuse/misconduct.

What can I do as a chiropractor to help keep fees low?

  • Adhere to College deadlines. Dealing with late filings costs more than we recover, even after the increases in penalties.
  • Regularly examine your compliance with the Code of Ethics, Standards of Practice and other college rules and directives. Violations of standards are harmful to the public and it is expensive for the CCOA to manage complaints.
  • Cultivate your regulatory compliance mindset by:

    o   Reading all communications from the CCOA.

    o   Taking your continuing competence seriously and engaging in self-reflective practice.

    o   Understanding and addressing your biases and risks in practice.

    o   Refreshing yourself on modern ethical standards in healthcare delivery.

    o   Expanding your perspectives by serving on a committee or council of the CCOA or another regulatory college.

    o   Staying up to date with standards and always follow them.

    o   Orient your practice to patient safety that includes adapting your awareness for social and cultural values regarding professional boundaries.

    o   Engaging in ethical, patient centered care and evidence-based practice.

    Why is a $100 conduct/competence levy added in 2024-25?

    The conduct/competence levy will be used at Council’s discretion to help fund CCOA’s professional conduct area, proactive regulatory initiatives, or the CCOA’s regulatory reserves.

    The CCOA is receiving an increasing volume and complexity of professional misconduct complaints, including a higher number of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct complaints. Additionally, there are complex files that are still ongoing from prior years. The conduct/competence levy may be used to offset the increasing costs of the CCOA professional conduct area.

    This levy may also help to offset the cost of CCOA’s proactive regulatory initiatives, such as the Practice Advisor. Although it is 100% the responsibility of regulated members to understand and follow regulatory requirements, the CCOA is offering some services to assist chiropractors in understanding and following ethics and standards required in practice in Alberta.

    Will we be required to pay the professional conduct levy every year?

    The CCOA will assess, on a yearly basis, the need for the levy, based on the activities of the past year, current/expected complaints and discipline cases in the coming year, and whether the CCOA regulatory reserve fund has reached its target amount.

    Why is there a new $1000 fee for Continuing Competence Repeat noncompliance?

    The CCOA is implementing a new fee of $1000 for those regulated members who are repeatedly non-compliant with continuing competence requirements. Coaching and monitoring of repeated non-compliant professionals takes a significant amount of resources from the CCOA.  Failure to take the continuing competence program seriously poses a risk to the public.

    Most chiropractors have internalized the importance of compliance with the continuing competence program and believe in lifelong education in the public interest. Unfortunately, there are some who still require strong deterrents and coaching to compel their compliance. Repeated violations of the continuing competence program may result in discipline in addition to high penalties. Discipline is costly, and colleges have legal limitations on the ability to recover costs of discipline from offending professionals. All these factors contribute to the CCOA’s decision to create this new $1000 fee for repeated non-compliance.

    Why are fees for onsite review increasing? How can a I avoid an onsite review?

    Onsite Review Fees will increase from $1500 to $2000. This increase will help recover some of the actual costs of onsite reviews.

    Onsite reviews occur when a regulated member has failed to address deficient record keeping and practice performance issues identified by the CCOA Competence Committee. The regulated member could avoid an onsite review and the associated fee by addressing the issues outlined in the results letters for their original practice review, remedial practice review or their individual coaching call that includes a subsequent remedial review.

    What have been CCOA fees over time?

    For the third year since the CCOA became a single mandate regulator, the CCOA is not increasing yearly dues. Below are the dues for the last ten years in Alberta. Prior to 2021, the association and college were combined in one organization, and the fees reflect membership in both.

    YEAR

    TOTAL

    DUES

    MAPP

    10% DISCOUNT

    NRP Fee

    CMCC Fee

    CCGI Levy

    2013/2014

    $2,964.00

    $1,764.00

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2014/2015

    $2,964.00

    $1,764.00

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2015/2016

    $2,964.00

    $1,764.00

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2016/2017

    $3,052.00

    $1,852.00

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2017/2018

    $3,052.00

    $1,852.00

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2018/2019

    $3,144.60

    $1,944.60

    $1,200.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2019/2020

    $3,094.60

    $3,044.60

    Included in dues

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    2020/2021

    $2,940.14

    $3,044.60

    Included in dues

    -$304.46

    $100.00

    $100.00

    N/A

    2021/2022

    $3,244.60

    $3,044.60

    Included in dues

    N/A

    $100.00

    $100.00

    N/A

    2022/2023

    $1,925.00

    $1,900.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    $25.00

    2023/2024

    $1,925.00

    $1,900.00

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    N/A

    $25.00

    MAPP = Marketing and Promotion Program

    10% DISCOUNT = COVID CLOSURE

     

    NRP = National Research Program

     

    CMCC = Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College

    CCGI = Canadian Chiropractic Guideline Initiative

    2022/2023 became single mandate as CCOA

    Where can I see how the CCOA spends its money?

    The CCOA is accountable to the government and the public for its operations. We also owe a responsibility toward regulated members to ensure the regulator is properly resourced and is fiscally responsible. Every year, CCOA files a yearly report with the government, which is tabled in the Legislature and made available to the public and regulated members on the CCOA website. The annual report includes the CCOA’s audited financial statements. Professional auditors conduct a comprehensive audit of the CCOA every year.

    Other health regulators post their financial statements in their annual reports, as well.  If you are interested in how other regulators manage their budgets, you are encouraged to look at other college’s annual reports.