Pediatric clinic will start charging for virtual visits in Ontario on Dec. 1
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."
Eight people were seriously injured after a Laval city bus crashed into a daycare Wednesday morning, according to first responders. The driver of the bus has been arrested, according to Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says that if he becomes prime minister he would uphold the 10-year deals Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is looking to ink with provinces and territories that would inject $46.2 billion in new funding into Canada's strained health-care systems.
With the hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkiye and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. The confirmed death toll from the world's deadliest quake in more than a decade passed 11,000.
An 'awkward' attempt at a handshake between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the prime minister Tuesday is another example of leaders from the western province hesitating before shaking Justin Trudeau's hand, say political experts.
Justin Trudeau has thrown in the towel in the fight to maintain the federal role as gatekeeper of a public, universal, accessible and fair health-care system in Canada, writes former NDP leader Tom Mulcair in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca. 'That could have tragic consequences for folks on the lower rungs of the social and economic ladder.'
Many Canadians are experiencing strains caused by the increased cost of living and inflation. In his exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, contributor Christopher Liew shares some of the top credits and deductions that you may be able to claim on your income tax return to help you save money.
According to newly released data, six provinces had increased wait times for walk-in clinics in 2022, with Canadians waiting an average of 37 minutes before seeing a physician.
Retirement is bittersweet for a Nova Scotia doctor who says she feels like she has abandoned the 2,000 patients she has been caring for because she was not able to find a doctor to replace her.
Thousands are dead and tens of thousands injured following the earthquake that has devastated Syria and Turkey. Maritimers with connections to the region are doing what they can to help during this time of need.
With more than 58,000 people requiring help, the Canadian Red Cross says its relief efforts after post-tropical storm Fiona last September were its largest ever in the country.
A Toronto father was working Saturday afternoon when he got a notification from an app connected to his home security system. And what he saw on his phone was every parent's worst nightmare.
An associate of Ontario’s self-described “crypto king” was operating his own fraud scam parallel to the multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme, court documents allege.
Eight people were seriously injured after a Laval city bus crashed into a daycare Wednesday morning, according to first responders. The driver of the bus has been arrested, according to Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel.
Police are investigating after a bar in Montreal North appears to have been the scene of an arson early Wednesday morning. There were no reported injuries, but the flames seriously damaged the building and forced residents upstairs to evacuate temporarily.
The number of organ donors in Quebec has increase threefold in the past five years, according to Transplant Quebec, which also reported a “steep” rise in donations coming from patients opting for medical assistance in dying (MAID). Canada’s MAID process allows patients with certain irremediable conditions to end their own life with the help of a physician or nurse. Since the law was passed in 2016, over 30,000 people have sought the process as of 2022, when the last federal report was published.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
Eighty-four bricks of suspected cocaine were seized from a commercial truck allegedly attempting to smuggle the drugs into Canada at the Blue Water Bridge, border officials say.
Team Lawes vice Selena Njegovan will be able to serve in a support role at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after all despite initially being told she'd have limited access on site while on pregnancy leave.
Eight people were seriously injured after a Laval city bus crashed into a daycare Wednesday morning, according to first responders. The driver of the bus has been arrested, according to Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel.
City of Brantford councillor Richard Carpenter asked representatives from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) if they could tell he was excited while wearing a hockey jersey in council chambers Tuesday night.
The Calgary Police Service asked residents of a northwest neighbourhood to shelter in their homes as officers responded to a situation Wednesday morning involving a firearm.
The 2022 Status of Emergency Preparedness in Calgary report highlights civil disobedience as a potential future disaster in the city and says the risk is considered high.
An 'awkward' attempt at a handshake between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the prime minister Tuesday is another example of leaders from the western province hesitating before shaking Justin Trudeau's hand, say political experts.
Robyn Silvernagle will be making her third appearance at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts next week in Kamloops, BC, just weeks after her team was put together.
Residents at a downtown Saskatoon apartment complex are speaking out about what they say are unreasonable rent increases and a lack of attention to building repairs.
An 'awkward' attempt at a handshake between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the prime minister Tuesday is another example of leaders from the western province hesitating before shaking Justin Trudeau's hand, say political experts.
Eight people were seriously injured after a Laval city bus crashed into a daycare Wednesday morning, according to first responders. The driver of the bus has been arrested, according to Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel.
A walk past a cemetery can conjure many emotions – sadness, fear and finality. But rarely does it conjure the idea of actually seeing a deceased loved one again. On British Columbia's Gabriola Island, however, coastal erosion is unearthing more than just memories.
Saskatchewan underestimated how many rapid antigen tests were needed during the height of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also touting the tests as a key part of its plan to halt transmission of the virus, internal emails indicate.
