(LifeSiteNews) –– Records released via a Freedom of Information request filed by a pro-life researcher show that Ontario’s health ministry allowed procedures for euthanasia to be billed under codes for “palliative care,” meaning the true taxpayer cost for the deadly procedure is higher than previously thought.

The shocking revelation was detailed in full in a recent June 22 blog post by pro-life researcher and blogger Patricia Maloney.

“Good grief – the Ontario government is telling doctors to use Palliative Care billing codes when they kill their patients,” wrote Maloney.

Maloney had requested from the Ontario Ministry of Health via a Freedom of Information request a full breakdown of the true costs of euthanasia – known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) – in the province.

“Can you then please provide me with the fee codes that doctors are being told to use for MAID services… I would like to see whatever guide/memo/documentation that exists to inform doctors to appropriately bill for MAID services” she requested.

In reply, Maloney received a Quick Reference Guide called OHIP Payments for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). This document is not available online according to Maloney. The document shows a full breakdown of what can be billed under the palliative care support billing code (K023), which includes MAiD procedures.

“Palliative care support (K023) should be claimed for the duration of time spent on the provision of medical assistance in dying,” reads the document.

“This includes travel time spent picking up and returning any drugs used in the provision of medical assistance in dying, and continues with time spent with the patient and family, obtaining final consent, drug administration, pronouncement and certification of death, counselling of relatives as necessary, meeting reporting requirements and notification of the coroner’s office.”

According to the Quick Reference Guide, a maximum of “two physicians are eligible to be paid K023 for the provision of medical assistance in dying.”

The document states that the K023 claims for “procedural planning case management, the provision of MAID and travel to patient’s home,” should be “flagged to indicate patient encounter is for the provision of MAiD.”

Maloney noted that for these services, the patient does not “need to be palliative” but they are “using a code for palliative care and it doesn’t have to be palliative care?” she observed.

Ontario Health involved in a ‘double cover-up,’ says pro-life researcher 

Maloney also brought to light more billing details, with one reading “If administration of the fatal dose of medication is by intravenous (IV), then G379 can be billed for insertion of the IV.”

“A945 Special palliative care consultation is billed and time requirements are met,” the document also reads, which Maloney says shows that K023 is eligible for payment with A945 when the duration of the consult “exceeds 50 minutes.”

Maloney noted that Ontario’s Schedule of Benefits Physician Services Under the Health Insurance Act does not indicate anywhere that palliative care billing codes can be used for MAiD.

“In fact MAiD is never even mentioned at all in this 990 page document. Clearly a separate (hidden) document had to be created to guide doctors how to bill OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) when they euthanize their patients,” observed Maloney.

In both the province of Alberta and Quebec the full cost for MAiD procedures are detailed in full, and not hidden.

According to Maloney, what her information shows is “really a double cover-up” when it comes to the costs of MAiD in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province.

“No accurate costs of the dollars spent to kill patients, and 2) inflate the dollars spent on Palliative Care,” she noted.

“The adjective ‘wicked’ comes to mind.”

Alex Schadenberg, the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, also noted in a recent blog that according to his investigation, the province of British Columbia, which has a high MAiD rate, is also using “palliative care billing codes” for MAiD.

According to Schadenberg, the Ontario Ministry of Health in the year 2022 “paid for more than 3,900 euthanasia deaths within the palliative care provincial budget.”

“It appears more likely that they are both hiding the cost of MAiD and faking an increase to palliative care funding,” he noted.

Last month, LifeSiteNews reported about how Maloney called out the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for handing out more than $3 million to a pro-euthanasia advocacy group, the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers.

The Trudeau government legalized euthanasia in 2016, and since that time deaths have skyrocketed under the MAiD program. There has been a continued push to further expand who can qualify for state-sanctioned death.

The expansion to include MAiD to those suffering solely from mental illness came as part of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which also allowed the chronically ill – not just the terminally ill – to qualify for doctor-assisted death.

The mental illness expansion was originally set to take effect in March of this year. However, after massive pushback from pro-life groups, conservative politicians and others, the Liberals under Trudeau delayed the introduction of the full effect of Bill C-7 until 2024 via Bill C-39, which became law on March 9.

Overall, there has been a 35% increase in state-sanctioned assisted suicides in 2022 in Canada, with estimates showing that some 13,500 Canadians had their lives taken through such a procedure in that same year alone.