Final Steps and Fees, Total damage & Conclusion

 

 

Once you have obtained your CPSO license, there are just a couple more steps to go, all of which can be achieved online within an hour or so. The first step is obtain a billing number so you can get paid when you start work (you don't actually need this to start work, you can always bill retrospectively). This was a fairly straight forward process, I just filled out an application for an OHIP billing number. You will need a void cheque as part of the application. This application cost me $0.

Before you start practicing, you will need to register with the Ontario Medical Association and obtain professional liability insurance through the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). Both are subscription services. For the OMA, a first year membership fee will set you back $650. The membership fee is prorated depending on when you join the OMA, I joined roughly mid year, so I ended up paying $330. The CMPA fee depends on your specialty, for family physicians, it costs $295/month ($3540.00 annually). I opted to pay my CMPA fee monthly. Click here for a list of fees based on speciality.

So what was the total cost of everything?

It was a costly endeavour , and certainly a lot more than I had ever expected. Luckily, I had already been working for 7 years at this point so I had money saved. The final tally came to a whopping $10,086.40 CAD (at the time of application, that was the equivalent of $11,342.34 AUD).

It's a lot of money, and that doesn't include moving costs, flight tickets, some other steps if you are not already a Canadian citizen (working permits etc), and lost income. So it's a costly endeavour and I don't think anyone would blame you if this is too costly for you. There are areas where you can save (e.g you didn't necessarily need to spend as much as I did for MCCQE1 prep material, you didn't have to send the medical transcript by email AND mail), but for the most part, the costs are unavoidable.

If you plan ahead, hopefully you can save up if you think this is still for you. In the end, I saw this as an opportunity to be closer to family and practice where I grew up, so it was worth it for me. Hopefully you'll find that this process will be worthy as well. Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions along the way and I'll try my best to help you. Good luck and thanks for reading.


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