Disconnected: Inside Canada's Patchwork of Virtual Care

<ul> <li><span>Virtual care has rapidly expanded across Canada, improving convenience and access for many but also creating a fragmented governance landscape. Provinces differ widely in how they regulate, fund and integrate virtual care, making cross-border delivery complex and leaving major gaps in continuity of care for patients navigating their journey through the health system.</span></li> <li><span>Despite efforts to align public systems with modern care delivery, large loopholes in how “insured services” are defined by provinces in practice have enabled significant growth of private, for-profit virtual care. These services operate both within and across provinces, raising concerns about equity, data fragmentation and uneven access based on patient resources or employer benefits.</span></li> <li><span>As virtual care becomes a permanent feature of the healthcare system, provinces must strengthen regulatory frameworks, protect continuity of care from fragmentation, and clarify the scope of insured services. Choices made now will determine whether virtual care reduces access gaps and enhances integration or contributes to greater inequity and system fragmentation.</span></li> </ul>