Pediatric clinic will start charging for virtual visits in Ontario on Dec. 1
As hospitals in Ottawa and across Ontario deal with an overflow of patients, the Ontario government is cutting some of the fees it pays to doctors who provide online care.
The move is pushing one virtual pediatric clinic to begin charging a monthly subscription fee to those who use its service.
Two-year-old Henry was born with a connective tissue disorder, and has spent most of his life in and out of the hospital.
"He's medically complex and this has been the worst cold, flu and RSV season we have experienced," mother Allana Kayfetz says. "Henry was meant to have a routine catheterization of his heart and it's now been postponed four times because he keeps getting sick."
Kayfetz, along with Henry's father Matthew Kantor, need him to stay healthy and to avoid unnecessary exposure to viruses. The family has turned to an online virtual pediatric clinic - KixCare.
"It's a platform that allows parents and caregivers like us to access, quite frankly physicians," says Kayfetz. "For example, we thought Henry had pink eye recently and we were able to get to that conclusion using a KixCare doctor."
The service provides 24 hours a day, seven days a week connections to healthcare professionals from around Ontario.
Throughout the pandemic, the province allowed doctors to charge the Ontario Health Insurance Plan the same fee for online visits as in person - about $80 per visit.
However, it was only a temporary. On Dec. 1, virtual care coverage will drop by 75 per cent.
"A temporary service that was put in place during COVID is now being a modified," Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones says. "The Ontario Medical Association and the Ministry of Health are very proud of the fact that we were able to work collaboratively to work out an agreement to make sure that, absolutely, family physicians have the ability to use virtual care when appropriate, but also to ensure that our family physicians are seeing patients in person."
KixCare plans to charge users a monthly subscription fee of $29 to make up for the cost. This access will be mainly for nurse practitioners.
For Kayfetz, she says that at a time when hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, waiting dozens of hours to see a doctor, this is not the right move.
"Everything about this feels really weird and backwards," she says. "What we really don't want is for the ones who are the most fragile, our kids who are medically fragile, to not have the surgeries moved, to not be able to see their primary care providers, and to not have a shortage of Tylenol, Advil, and access to medicine."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Premier Legault reiterates that McGill pro-Palestinian camp must be dismantled
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.