Late July brought a cluster of updates that affect how Ontario physician practices manage records, technology, virtual care, and billing. None of these require urgent action on their own, but together they are worth a single read-through so nothing falls through the cracks.
Ontario Moves From EMR Market Sounding to Formal Procurement
Back in May, MAP covered Ontario’s early “market sounding” for a single, interoperable provincewide EMR system, part of the province’s $3.4 billion Primary Care Action Plan. That process has now moved into its next stage. As of late July, Ontario has launched a formal Request for Bids procurement process through Supply Ontario and the Ontario Tenders Portal, seeking vendors to supply a standardized EMR platform intended to improve interoperability across the system.
Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones and Dr. Jane Philpott, chair of the Primary Care Action Team, both spoke to the initiative, noting that while roughly 90% of Ontario family physicians already use some form of EMR, those systems remain fragmented across the province. The Primary Care Action Plan has connected more than 400,000 people to primary care since launch, already exceeding its original 300,000-person target.
Source: Canadian Healthcare Technology, “Ontario Begins Procurement for Provincial EMR System,” July 2026. canhealth.com
There is no action required from practices yet. This is a procurement process, not a mandate, and a chosen vendor or migration timeline has not been announced. It is worth watching, however, if your practice is evaluating or renewing an EMR contract in the next year or two, since a provincial standard could eventually affect vendor viability and interoperability requirements.
CPSO Advice on Medical Records Management
CPSO issued updated Advice to the Profession guidance on Medical Records Management. The core point is one that is easy to lose track of when a practice relies on a commercial EMR vendor or records-management service: physicians remain ultimately responsible for meeting their professional and legal record-keeping obligations, regardless of who is handling the system day to day.
CPSO advises that any agreement with a commercial records or EMR provider be documented in writing, and that the agreement reflect the same legal and regulatory obligations that apply to the physician directly. CPSO also reminds physicians that when setting fees for a copy of a patient’s medical record, the patient’s ability to pay must be taken into consideration.
Source: CPSO, “Advice to the Profession: Medical Records Management,” July 2026. cpso.on.ca
If you have not reviewed your EMR or records-management vendor agreement recently, this is a reasonable moment to confirm it is in writing and that it reflects your actual regulatory obligations, not just the vendor’s standard terms.
CPSO Advice on Virtual Care
CPSO also updated its Advice to the Profession guidance on Virtual Care, reinforcing that virtual care covers a broad range of services, from assessing and diagnosing patients remotely to teleradiology, telemonitoring, and inter- or intra-professional consultations. The guidance reiterates that virtual care plays an important role in improving access and efficiency, but is not appropriate for every clinical situation. Not every condition can be safely managed virtually, and not every patient has equal access to, or comfort with, the technology involved.
Source: CPSO, “Advice to the Profession: Virtual Care,” July 2026. cpso.on.ca
For practices offering hybrid or fully virtual visit options, this is a useful prompt to revisit which visit types are being routed to virtual care and whether that routing still reflects sound clinical judgment for each patient, rather than default scheduling convenience.
OHIP Bulletin 260701: Fee Code Updates
OHIP INFOBulletin 260701 introduced fee schedule adjustments as part of the staged rollout of the 2024 Physician Services Agreement. Two changes were implemented into the claims system on July 1, 2026, retroactive to an effective date of April 1, 2026, with a three-month stale-date exemption on both.
Fee code E832 (excision of fascia for Dupuytren’s, additional rays) now allows two services per limb, per day. Dementia assessment codes A073, C073, A074, C074, A071, C071, and A078 can now be billed with no age restriction, removing a prior limitation on who could be assessed under these codes.
Source: OHIP INFOBulletin 260701, referenced via YES Medical System, July 2026. yescorp.ca
If your practice bills either of these code families, confirm your billing software has been updated to reflect the changes, and check whether any claims submitted since April 1 were affected by the prior restrictions and are eligible for resubmission within the stale-date exemption window.
A Quick Reminder: CPSO’s Prescribing Drugs Policy
CPSO’s June Dialogue newsletter republished a reminder of the targeted amendments to its Prescribing Drugs policy, which MAP covered in detail in July’s physician roundup. As a quick refresher: physicians prescribing safer supply must now conduct an in-person assessment and offer opioid agonist therapy before initiating safer supply, and must reassess patients in person at least every three months for ongoing prescribing. If you have not yet reviewed the full policy against your current prescribing workflow, this is a good prompt to close that loop.
What You Should Do
Confirm your billing software reflects the OHIP 260701 fee code changes, review your EMR or records-management vendor agreement against CPSO’s records management advice, and take a look at how virtual visits are currently being triaged in your practice. None of these are urgent deadlines, but each is a small gap that is easy to overlook until it becomes a bigger problem.
How MAP Can Help
Keeping billing, records management, and virtual care practices aligned with the latest CPSO and OHIP guidance is exactly the kind of ongoing compliance work MAP handles for physician clients through our OHIP Billing and Risk and Compliance service lines. Visit maphcm.com to learn more.