Why Ontario parents will have to pay to use a virtual pediatric clinic starting next month

Parents and health-care experts are speaking out after learning an online pediatric service that's helped keep sick children out of overflowing Ontario hospitals will no longer be free starting next week due to provincial fee cuts. 

KixCare, a clinic that offers on-demand, round-the-clock pediatric care, is making the move as the province is set to cut the fees it pays doctors for virtual visits from $37 to $15 per patient on Dec. 1.

The clinic, which saw patients without a referral, will instead offer a paid monthly subscription that will cost parents $29 a month.

"This is just not the right time, if ever, to bring in these cuts," said Dr. Harley Eisman, co-founder and chief medical officer at KixCare, which saw 20,000 patients virtually in the past year, according to its co-founder and CEO Daniel Warner.

The cuts come as children's medical centres across the country, such as Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, are grappling with climbing hospital admissions due to COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Some patients are waiting up to 12 hours to be seen, according to data obtained from SickKids. And some parents say they have nowhere to take their child as their family doctor or pediatrician will not see a patient in-person if they have symptoms of COVID-19.

Leah Littlepage said the service has helped her 16-month-old daughter stay out of the emergency department at least four times this past year.

"It's deplorable that the funding for this program is being cut at the exact same time the pediatric hospitals are being overrun," said Littlepage, who lives in Ottawa.

She said when she heard KixCare would become a pay-per-access service because of the new reduced pediatrician fees "my heart dropped."

"Mommy groups are flooded with parents seeking medical advice from each other because they don't have anywhere else to turn."

Matthew Kantor, a father of three children aged two, four and six, says the clinic has been "critical" for his family.

"The service has given us doctors who work at SickKids and this has been hugely beneficial for us … [They] have done really good diagnostic work just through video conferencing," said Kantor, who lives in Toronto.

Kantor's youngest son was diagnosed with Myhre Syndrome, a degenerative condition that affects the connective tissue in the body. 

"My son is in and out of SickKids more than once a month due to his condition … we've seen very long wait times, we've seen overflow queues and it's really because parents don't have options."

Eisman said eight or nine out of 10 patients KixCare sees virtually were able to get the correct method of care and had a positive outcome.