But the Achilles heel of Ontario’s FHT system was always an exorbitant, inefficient and overly complicated model of compensation based on capitation payments . It took just a few years for FHTs to become a non-trivial drain on the province’s finances. A 2011 provincialThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.The report found that, just six years into the initiative, Ontario’s fledgling FHTs had already proliferated into 17, each with its own payment structure.
A 2014 study from the Conference Board of Canada found that Ontario’s FHTs struggled to recruit and retain qualified non-physician health professionals., published the following year, found that patients attached to FHTs ended up in emergency rooms at slightly higher rates. Wynne’s health minister, Eric Hoskins, told the Globe and Mail’s editorial board at the time that his ministry was taking a “hard look” at how effectively FHTs were functioning. Since then, the total number of FHTs operating in the province has remained flat at 184.Article content