The provincial government is “close” to an agreement with doctors on sending contract talks to binding arbitration if an impasse is reached in negotiations, Health Minister Eric Hoskins told the Star.

A deal on arbitration — long a stumbling block between the province and the Ontario Medical Association — would smooth the path to a new contract with the organization rocked by internal tumult.

“We’re still working together to hopefully reach agreement . . . on the fundamentals, the basic principles, there’s broad agreement. I’m hopeful and optimistic,” Hoskins said Friday after an announcement at the Hospital for Sick Children.

“I think we’re close,” he added, noting that a deal on sending any contract impasse to a third-party arbitrator for a decision is a precursor to further talks.

“We’re not into full scale negotiations on anything.”

Ontario Medical Association officials could not be reached for comment.

The OMA has been roiled by internal disagreement since doctors rejected a tentative contract with the province last August in part because it did not have a binding arbitration mechanism.

That deal would have boosted the pot of money for paying physicians by 2.5 per cent to $12.8 billion by 2020 but also would have put a financial clamp on things like excessive urine testing by doctors at methadone clinics and fee-for-service billings over $1 million a year.

Two vocal coalitions of doctors said the increase would not keep up with demands for care from a fast-growing and aging population. Amid vigorous debate, the OMA tried to sell the deal as the best bet for stability while it pursues a court challenge to win binding arbitration.

The OMA has been without an executive since the last one resigned en masse in February. The dramatic departures followed a vote of non-confidence from the OMA’s 260-member governing council.

OMA members meet this weekend to debate the association’s governance structure and are expected to elect a new president Sunday. Some observers expect more militant doctors to take over, increasing the risk of labour strife that could impact patients.

It’s been three years since the association — which represents 34,000 physicians and medical students — has had a contract with the provincial government.

Many doctors are angry and frustrated they have gone so long without a contract and endured two rounds of fee cuts imposed by the government, with some specialists seeing their fees cut the most.

Until recently, the government has refused to discuss binding arbitration because it didn’t want to relinquish control of the $11.5-billion annual physician services budget to an arbitrator.

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There are also concerns losing that control would mean that funding decisions are divorced from the need to reform the system to improve efficiencies and take modern technology into account.

Last year, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said he’s open to sending doctor contract disputes to a neutral, third-party arbitrator if he is elected premier in the June 7, 2018 election.