What’s the future of virtual health care in Ontario? Despite funding cutback, it may have taken root

Posted on March 23, 2026 in Health Delivery System

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TheStar.com – News/Insight
March 22, 2026.   By Hanan Hammad

The chief executive officer of Your Doctors Online compares the future of health care to the current state of food delivery.

A large majority of Canadians would accept a virtual medical appointment if given the option, studies show. Many even prefer to visit their doctor online for many health concerns — a trend that has grown more popular since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, online visits lag in Ontario due to virtual care funding cuts, deterring physicians from providing care that could be dispensed easily through emails, text messages, phone calls and video chats. And with family doctors in short supply, the only option for many is to cram into already-overcrowded emergency rooms seeking health guidance.

More than six in 10 Canadians are unable to see a primary health-care provider on the same or next day in order to address an urgent concern or get a prescription. Partly as a result, there were over 16.1 million unscheduled visits in the emergency room across Canada during the last two years. Health-care officials say many of these could have been averted, using virtual methods readily available.

Take Madiha Quraishi of Niagara Falls, Ont., for example. Using the virtual care platform Your Doctors Online, the busy mother of three complements her in-person family doctor appointments with virtual ones when she’s short on time, when the weather makes travel challenging and, particularly, when the health concern doesn’t seem urgent.

“Having that health care at your fingertips is just phenomenal. I feel like this is for sure revolutionary for busy people,” says Quraishi.

“With Your Doctors Online, I literally hop onto the chat, and they give me a quick call. They’ll ask me questions in depth and in detail, they take care of my concerns, and they de-escalate it — because I am a mom, I obviously think the worst-case scenario.”

According to a recent Statistics Canada report, more than 40 per cent of health-care users have already accessed a virtual care appointment. Those who did not have a primary care provider were more likely to use virtual care, says Kristyn Frank, senior researcher at Statistics Canada.

Another finding in the report was that fewer than one in 10 patients declined a virtual appointment when given the choice. Previous literature indicated barriers like privacy concerns, connectivity issues or discomfort using technology were limiting factors for virtual care, but that wasn’t the case, says Frank.

There are many private telehealth companies operating in Canada. Rocket Doctor enables doctors to triage patients virtually, as covered under provincial health plans, so their first stop isn’t the emergency room, says Dr. William Cherniak, an emergency physician and founder and CEO of Rocket Doctor.

Cherniak’s company doesn’t employ the physicians. Doctors are 100 per cent independent on the platform. The software and system simply connect physicians that are in academic centres and big cities with patients who lack access to health care in rural communities, he says.  For example, Rocket Doctor connected a physician from London, Ont. to patients in Cochrane, Ont., and the local pharmacist completed diagnostic tests before the patients’ appointments. All the doctors on the platform can order labs, imaging, make specialist referrals and book followup appointments, says Cherniak.

Other companies, such as Your Doctors Online, run on a private subscription model. It costs $20 a month — billed annually — for unlimited consults, prescriptions and lab requisitions. (This also includes the addition of four other adult family members and any dependants.)

There are some additional costs for other services, such as disability insurance forms, that may require more time from a doctor, says Raihan Masroor, chief executive officer of Your Doctors Online.

In Ontario this trend is still happening despite some regulatory disincentives. In 2022, Ontario Health cut its virtual care funding for family physicians, says Cherniak. OHIP began paying $20 for a video appointment, and $15 by phone, for a virtual-only relationship — about half of what a physician could bill for an in-person appointment. (However, Ontario Health kept its funding for specialist and addiction medicine virtual appointments.)

A spokesperson for the minister of health said at the time that “Virtual care is intended to complement in-person care, not replace it,” and the Ontario Medical Association said an ongoing relationship with a family physician is “significantly better quality of care than episodic” care such as online appointments.

So Ontarian patients using Rocket Doctor either have to purchase uninsured services — which do not have a billing code by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) — or wait until physicians have space in their calendar to take OHIP patients. Platforms such as Rocket Doctor are trying to make public health care accessible to patients through the virtual platform and changes in funding pose a challenge.

“Physicians aren’t able to provide the same level of care at a 50 per cent reduced rate,” Cherniak says.

Still, three years after Ontario’s cutback, virtual care is catching on in Canada. That’s sometimes even without doctors: Ontario Health’s annual report from a year ago cites as a highlight that more than 31,800 patients “connected to nurse practitioners through regional virtual urgent care clinics, with only four per cent referred to emergency departments.”

Cherniak adds that most provinces have embraced virtual care and recognized it as important by funding it through their provincial health plans. British Columbia is one example. That province is leveraging its 811 line to connect patients to nurses and other health-care practitioners in real time through phone and video calls, as well as through emails and text messages, says Dr. Kendall Ho, emergency physician and professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine who leads the digital emergency medicine unit.

“For British Columbia, we have demonstrated that we actually reduce emergency department visits of patients because of 811,” says Ho. “It increases access of care for patients who are living in rural, remote and Indigenous communities.”

 Like 5.9 million adults in Canada, Brittany Tarr did not have a family doctor as she frantically sought a blood test requisition to screen for tuberculosis — a standard requirement for her upcoming practicum leading to a health-care job.

“It was impossible to actually get into a clinic in town, and I would’ve actually missed my practicum,” says Tarr, a resident of Red Deer, Alta.

A Google search for online doctors led her to Telus Health, a platform covered by her provincial health-care plan.

Critically, one blood test and followup led to others that showed her liver enzymes were “out of whack.” Further imaging diagnosed an enlarged spleen, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and gallstones, and ultimate removal of her gallbladder.

“Fifty-two per cent of family doctors (in Ontario) are going to be retiring” — or are considering it, according to the Ontario Medical Association — “in the next five years, so virtual care will be an even more integral part of the health-care system,” says Masroor.

He compares the future of health care to the current state of food delivery. Years ago, people would pick up their takeout food, but now they hop on Uber Eats or Skip the Dishes to order it to their house.

“I feel that that’s how people are going to be interacting with health care as well,” he says.

Hanan Hammad is a Canadian health journalist based in Baltimore, Md. and a journalism fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/whats-the-future-of-virtual-health-care-in-ontario-despite-funding-cutback-it-has-taken-root/article_546136fa-6024-473b-ac26-827168df0a2a.html

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