Although there has been no public announcement, we understand that the Ontario government has indicated it will not be proceeding with the final approval of regulations developed under the Health Sector Payment Transparency Act (“HSPTA”) before the upcoming election. Rather, these regulations will be revisited in the fall of 2018.
As we reported, Ontario passed the HSPTA as part of Bill 160 in December 2017. It will require reporting certain financial relationships in Ontario’s healthcare system to the government. As we also reported, draft regulations were published for consultation in February 2018. The deadline for consultation was April 6, 2018, and this deadline has not been extended.
The draft regulations contained an implementation timeline that would require reporting of transactions that occurred in the 2019 calendar year. It is expected that when the regulations are revisited this timeline will be delayed.