Author response to “The Yukon data are incorrect”
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* Michael H. Chaikof

We appreciate Dr. Poole’s time and expertise in commenting on our analysis. While we sought a diverse membership in our study committee, we did not have a member from the Yukon and, therefore, we value his knowledge of the reimbursement system there.

We take exception to his choice of words, “factual errors,” as there is a published fee code for the Yukon, that does reflect 41.8% lower reimbursement on gynecologic procedures compared with similar procedures performed in men. Moreover, the phrase “We did not include data for the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, as there were no fee-for-service specialists in obstetrics and gynecology or urology practising there,” is, in fact, true; there are specialists in the Yukon, including obstetrician–gynaecologists and specialists performing the male procedures on our list. Even if they are paid through an alternative payment plan, those are presumably negotiated based on shadow billing that reflects significant gender discrepancies.

Nevertheless, we do not want to inflate our results with data from the Yukon that do not directly reflect actual payments. After removing Yukon from the analysis of paired procedures by jurisdiction, the overall difference for all of Canada decreases from 28.1% to 26.7%, leaving Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Alberta as the 8 of 10 provinces with lower fee codes for procedures performed on females. We appreciate Dr. Poole’s overall support for the topic and his corrections of our work.

## Footnotes

*   **Competing interests:** None declared.

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