Your Health Act, 2023, S.O. 2023, c. 4 - Bill 60

JurisdictionOntario
Bill Number60
Date18 May 2023

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Explanatory Note was written as a reader’s aid to Bill 60 and does not form part of the law. Bill 60 has been enacted as Chapter 4 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2023.

SCHEDULE 1
INTEGRATED COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES CENTRES ACT, 2023

The Schedule enacts the Integrated Community Health Services Centres Act, 2023 and makes consequential and related amendments to several other Acts. The major elements of the Act are described below.

Part I sets out interpretive provisions that apply to the Act and the application of the Act.

Part II provides for the appointment of one or more Directors, who have various functions, duties and powers under the Act.

Part III provides for the licensing of integrated community health services centres and related matters. It provides a prohibition for establishing and operating such a centre without a licence. It also sets out the process for applying for licences, the considerations in issuing licences and the processes for the renewal, relocation or transfer of licences. Provisions are provided for orders by the Director to take control of a centre in certain circumstances and for the revocation, suspension or amendment of licences. It also sets out requirements on all licensees, including the requirement to comply with requirements under this Act and to comply with the applicable quality and safety standards.

Part IV establishes the rules that apply with respect to payments and financial accountability. It permits the Minister to pay for facility costs or other operating costs of integrated community health services centres. It establishes a prohibition on charging a facility cost without a licence and provides that facility costs may only be charged to, and accepted from, the Minister or a prescribed person. It creates prohibitions on charging or accepting payments for providing a preference in obtaining access to an insured service at an integrated community health services centre. It also prohibits refusing to provide insured services to a person who chooses not to pay for any product, device or service offered at the integrated community health services centre. It also sets out situations in which payments may be refused or where the Minister may require reimbursement of payments, such as when the service was not in fact rendered, and provides for appeals from those payment decisions.

Part V establishes the procedures for inspections and the issuance of compliance orders. Inspectors may be appointed by the Minister, the Director or an organization that is prescribed as an inspecting body under the Act. Inspecting bodies are charged with several responsibilities, including performing inspections and establishing and publishing quality and safety standards. The powers of inspectors to conduct inspections are set out. The Director and inspecting bodies are given powers to issue compliance orders to require licensees to achieve compliance with the Act.

Part VI sets out a number of miscellaneous provisions, including provisions respecting service, the confidentiality of information and the liability of the Crown.

Part VII sets out offences under the Act and establishes the penalty for committing an offence. It also empowers the Attorney General to seek a restraining order for contraventions of section 4 or 29.

Part VIII sets out the power to make regulations under the Act.

Part IX provides for the repeal of the Independent Health Facilities Act, the revocation of the regulations made under that Act and the repeal of the Oversight of Health Facilities and Devices Act, 2017.

Part X sets out consequential and related amendments.

Part XI sets out the commencement and short title of the Act set out in the Schedule.

SCHEDULE 2
REGULATED PROFESSIONS AMENDMENTS

The Schedule makes amendments to several Acts.

In the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act, 2004, the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021, the Gift of Life Act, the Health Insurance Act and the Public Hospitals Act, the definitions of “physician” are expanded to allow persons prescribed in the regulations to meet those definitions. The amendments to the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 also allow prescribed persons to meet the definition for different classes of nurses, and include a regulation-making power to set conditions on the manner in which prescribed persons may carry out their duties and responsibilities under the Act.

The Healing Arts Radiation Protection Act is amended to allow for the operation of an x-ray machine in accordance with a prescription from a prescribed person.

The Medical Laboratory Technology Act, 1991, the Medicine Act, 1991, the Nursing Act, 1991 and the Respiratory Therapy Act, 1991 are amended to add a new power allowing the Minister of Health, with the approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, to make regulations exempting persons from the restricted title provisions and the holding out provisions of those Acts.

The Narcotics Safety and Awareness Act, 2010 is amended to expand the definition of “dispenser” and “prescriber” to include prescribed persons. Persons who are prescribed as a “prescriber” are exempt from the requirement to record their health profession College registration number on a prescription.

The application of the Ontario Medical Association Dues Act, 1991 is expanded so that the Act applies to prescribed persons who are engaged in the practice of medicine in Ontario.

The Pharmacy Act, 1991 is amended to expand pharmacists’ scope of practice to include the assessment of conditions for the purposes of providing medication therapies.

SCHEDULE 3
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND PROTECTION OF PRIVACY ACT

The Schedule amends the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to extend the application of the Act to extra-ministerial data integration units that are not institutions under the Act, or part of such institutions. In such cases, the Act applies to extra-ministerial data integration units with specified modifications, including any modifications prescribed by the regulations. A new requirement is imposed on senior officers of such extra-ministerial data integration units to publish specified information on an annual basis.

Chapter 4

An Act to amend and enact various Acts with respect to the health system

Assented to May 18, 2023

CONTENTS

His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Contents of this Act

1 This Act consists of this section, sections 2 and 3 and the Schedules to this Act.

Commencement

2 (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, this Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

(2) The Schedules to this Act come into force as provided in each Schedule.

(3) If a Schedule to this Act provides that any provisions are to come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, a proclamation may apply to one or more of those provisions, and proclamations may be issued at different times with respect to any of those provisions.

Short title

3 The short title of this Act is the Your Health Act, 2023.

SCHEDULE 1
INTEGRATED COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES CENTRES ACT, 2023

CONTENTS

Preamble

The people of Ontario and their Government:

Share a vision for connected and convenient care, where the health and wellbeing of all OHIP-insured Ontarians is enabled through health services that are available at no cost to patients;

Commit to supporting access to safe, effective, equitable, efficient and person-centred care;

Recognize the value of a healthcare system that collaboratively integrates publicly funded, community-based health services with local and regional health system partners;

Intend to expand access to publicly funded community-based health services to improve patient wait times, patient experience and access to care in a way that considers the needs of diverse, vulnerable, priority and underserviced populations, taking into account linguistic needs; and

Acknowledge the importance of advancing initiatives to optimize health human resources today and in the future.

PART I
INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION

Interpretation

1 (1) In this Act,

“Board” means the Health Services Appeal and Review Board under the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Appeal and Review Boards Act, 1998; (“Commission”)

“compliance order” means an order made under section 49; (“ordre de conformité”)

“Director” means the Director or Directors appointed under section 3 and, where more than one Director has been appointed, means the Director or Directors that have been assigned the power, function or duty in the provision in which the term appears; (“directeur”)

“facility cost” means,

(a) a charge, fee or payment for or in respect of a service or operating cost that,

(i) supports, assists and is a necessary adjunct, or any of them, to an insured service, and

(ii) is not part of the insured service, or

(b) any other charge, fee or payment that is prescribed as a facility cost; (“coûts d’établissement”)

“health facility” means a place in which one or more members of the public receive health services and includes an integrated community health services centre; (“établissement de santé”)

“inspecting body” means an organization that is prescribed as an inspecting body in accordance with the regulations; (“organisme d’inspection”)

“inspector” means an inspector appointed under section 42 or 43; (“inspecteur”)

“insured person” has the same meaning as in the Health Insurance Act; (“assuré”)

“insured service” means,

(a) a service rendered by a physician for which an amount payable is prescribed by the regulations under the Health Insurance Act, or

(b) a service prescribed as an insured service under the Health Insurance Act rendered by a practitioner within the meaning of that Act; (“service assuré”)

“integrated community health services centre” means, subject to...

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