Quebec doctors have successfully billed the province for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. In this Canadian-first, treatment for psychedelic therapy has been covered by the government health care system.
Back in May, Mindspace by Numinus became the first healthcare facility in Quebec to legally treat depression with psilocybin. Now we’ve received the news that another cohort of doctors (Dr. Houman Farzin & Dr. Jean-François Stephan) have completed psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions and successfully billed the government to cover the cost of these services.
Kudos to non-profit Therapsil for breaking the news.
BREAKING: Quebec first province to cover costs of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, done by two physicians
Two doctors successfully billed for and were paid by the province of Quebec after completing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy treatment for a patient with legal access pic.twitter.com/8CdYI10i9D
— TheraPsil (@TheraPsil) December 13, 2022
This is all part of the ongoing effort to remove legal barriers to psychedelic therapy.
Last month, TheraPsil traveled to Ottawa
with patients and healthcare professionals to protest and attempt to meet with federal health ministers Jean-Yves Duclos and Carolyn Bennett to advocate for increased access. While this summer, Therapsil was part of a potentially historic lawsuit against the Minister of Health and Canadian government, arguing that patient access to psilocybin therapy is a right under the Canadian charter.
This news, although part of a larger and likely much longer fight, is a positive step forward in securing access to critical therapies for patients in need.
