“Our broadly available online GP consultations don’t always qualify for OHIP’s K-codes … due to the core components of our platform,” he said, adding that 70 per cent of Maple patients decline video and phone appointments when they’re able to, opting instead for secure messaging.ĭoctors affiliated with Maple charge provincial health insurance plans if possible, but when it comes to providing non-publicly covered services, Maple gives patients what they want, he said. Maple does offer video and phone services, but Belchetz acknowledged it often defaults to text. That meant Maple could charge the woman with the dog allergy $49 for an appointment done by text even though OHIP would pay $36.85 for such a visit if done by phone or video under one of its new codes. Not included were visits done by secure text messaging, a service Belchetz said patients prefer and one that Maple offered even pre-pandemic. These codes are intended to help with social distancing during the pandemic. Last March, the Ontario government introduced a handful of temporary billing codes, known as “K-codes,” to enable doctors to provide routine health-care services by video and telephone. A national physician licensure for telemedicine would also be a major step forward,” he said explaining that this would allow physicians in well-serviced provinces such as Ontario to care for patients in underserved areas such as the Maritimes and the North. “We would love to see more coverage across the country for broader services, as well as provincial remuneration for cross-provincial care. “There is no reason why virtual care shouldn’t involve the private sector in a similar manner.”īelchetz wants Maple to play an even bigger role in the delivery of health care and would like to see more public coverage for services that companies such as his are capable of providing, he said. “From public-private partnerships that run some of our largest hospitals, to laboratory companies and diagnostic imaging centres, private, for-profit businesses provide the backbone of much of our publicly funded health-care system.” he said. For-profit companies are already widely involved in the provision of health services across Canada, he noted. “On our busier days, we process several thousand visits … with the majority of that volume occurring in Ontario,” he said.īelchetz takes exception to criticism of the growing role that firms such as his are playing. Since the start of the pandemic, more than a million new patients have been served by the company, and consultation volumes have tripled, said CEO Dr. Over at Maple, business is indeed booming. “Charging patients out of pocket for it would mean that the Canada Health Act would be meaningless if that were allowed to continue,” Mehra argued. The Canada Health Act requires that medically necessary services provided by doctors be covered by provincial health insurance plans. “They are violating the core tenets of public medicare in Canada and it has got to be stopped,” she says.
Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, takes issue with private providers charging patients for online consultations, especially when the Ontario government recently created billing codes to allow doctors to bill OHIP for virtual care, albeit by video or phone, not by text. But they also argue that the pandemic is exposing shortcomings of the nascent sector and underscoring the need for policymakers and legislators to ensure it is better integrated into Canada’s publicly funded health system.Ĭharging patients for care that should be publicly insured is a case in point, they contend. There is no doubt that virtual care will play an increasing role in the delivery of health services, they acknowledge.
While it’s widely accepted that growth in virtual care is long overdue, defenders of public medicare question the expanding role of private providers in a publicly funded health system.Īs demand for services from companies such as Toronto-based Maple soars, so too does scrutiny.Ĭritics charge that private providers don’t always act in the best interests of patients and taxpayers, or operate within the provisions of the Canada Health Act. Such transactions are occurring at record rates during the pandemic, which has seen a surge in the use of virtual health-care services. The doctor also recommended that she try to get out of a dog-sitting arrangement, which appeared to bring on the allergic reaction. In no time at all, she was communicating, via secure text messaging, with a family doctor who gave her a prescription for a nasal spray. When over-the-counter medication failed to quell a sudden and intense allergic reaction, the Toronto senior turned to her computer in search of a remedy.Ī quick Google search brought her to the website of Maple Corp., one of the country’s largest providers of virtual health care.
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