“Because we should be doing everything possible to maintain and expand access to health care, especially for those that are already marginalized by not having their own physician.” “And those are the people who really need them most,” said Lowe. “But those who don’t have a referral to a pediatrician or don’t have their own physician are going to lose access to see physicians through virtual care. “The patients that I see in my other practices, which can see me either in person or virtually, will still be able to do so, because they’ve been referred to me,” said Lowe.
The new fee structure is a fraction of what pediatricians who consulted on the site were being paid. Aviva Lowe, a pediatrician who consulted on KixCare, an online portal that saw patients without a referral. “By limiting the fee to that extent, they’ve literally and figuratively devalued virtual care to the point where it’s not viable for physicians to work that way and to see patients that way,” said Dr. Physicians who see their patients on an ongoing basis will continue to get paid the same amount for a virtual visit as an in-person one, as will specialists who see patients who get a referral.īut critics say the province’s new approach to the virtual fees is a disincentive for physicians who are adding capacity to the system by offering in-person care as well as virtual appointments to patients who aren’t their own. “The most common visit fee-code billed by family physicians is $36,” the OMA said. There is a range of fees charged by physicians. The new fee structure is a departure from the pandemic, when temporary fee codes “paid physicians on par with face-to-face fee codes,” according to the OMA. “This is significantly better quality of care than episodic walk-in services,” said the association, a reference to both virtual and in-person walk-in clinics. “An ongoing relationship with a family physician is the foundation of a good health-care system as it provides both comprehensive care and continuity of care,” the OMA said in an email.
1, but were put off until Dec.1 because the OHIP computer system changes needed to enable the virtual care framework were not completed in time, according to the OMA. The changes to the fee codes were supposed to be in effect as of Oct. The one-off virtual visits will be paid at a reduced rate of $15 to $20 when the “physician renders a service to a patient where there is not an existing patient-physician relationship,” according to the Physician Services Agreement. The provincial government and the Ontario Medical Association have agreed to decrease payments to doctors for one-off virtual appointments - a move meant to stem the tide of virtual-only clinics and encourage doctors to provide comprehensive ongoing care to patients.
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