Collecting health card information will be mandatory for submitting the MHA PDS. What does this mean?

In PDS 1.0, the "health card number" field is optional. In PDS 2.0, which will be rolled out after March 2025, collecting health card information will be mandatory. In order to have the client record be submitted to Ontario Health, the Health Service Provider will need to enter:

If the health card number information is left completely blank, the record will not be submitted to Ontario Health and will therefore be excluded from any provincial analysis. The goal of collecting complete client records, including OHIP numbers, is to enable provincial-level monitoring of services, evidence-informed planning, more equitable funding allocations and reporting and analytics across the entire client journey (including primary care, other community care and acute/emergency care).

Will clients without an OHIP card be denied service?

The collection of Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) numbers should not pose a barrier to care provision.  Mental health and addictions clients unable or unwilling to provide an Ontario Health Insurance Plan Number within functional centres not included below will not be denied service.  

What do I do if a client does not have a health card, or does not want to provide their health card?

If service providers are unable to collect a valid health card number they can input either: "client does not have a health card" or "client does not want to provide health card."

Do I have to collect health card number at referral?

No. While we recommend collecting a health card number as early as possible, service providers can leave the field blank, or input a placeholder such as "health card pending intake" (depending on the configuration of your CMS) until the health card number is collected.

Do all health programs have to collect health card numbers?

No. The Mental Health & Addictions Centre of Excellence will not be monitoring or expecting health card number collection from the following functional centres. Service providers may still collect health card numbers as they see fit for these services.

Does Ontario Health use OHIP numbers submitted to the MHA PDS for billing purposes?

No.

How does Ontario Health use OHIP numbers submitted to the MHA PDS?

OHIP numbers submitted to the MHA PDS are compared against the Registered Persons Database, which is the database containing all people with OHIP cards in the province. For our analytics purposes, we collect OHIP number to be able to link clients across the health care continuum (e.g., client interactions with community, emergency and hospital providers) to understand the client journey.

Do you have any guidance on how to begin collecting OHIP card numbers?  

Your organization may benefit from adopting OHIP card readers. You can find more information on how to get an OHIP card reader here.