Bill 78 explained in plain English
Electronic Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2014
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This bill amends Ontario laws to establish rules for electronic health records, including how personal health information can be managed, protected, and disclosed.
This bill, called the Electronic Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2014, proposes amendments to several Ontario laws related to electronic health records. It aims to establish a framework for the creation and maintenance of these records, outlining rules for collecting, using, and disclosing personal health information within them. The bill also addresses issues such as patient consent, information security, and penalties for non-compliance. Additionally, it includes provisions for the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to collect and use health information for specific purposes, and amends the Drug Interchangeability and Dispensing Fee Act to remove a requirement for handwritten prescriptions.
- It amends several existing Ontario acts to address electronic health record issues.
- It introduces new rules for "prescribed organizations" that create and maintain electronic health records, treating them as health information custodians in certain contexts.
- It allows "prescribed organizations" to collect and use health numbers for creating or maintaining electronic health records.
- It permits the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to collect personal health information from electronic health records for purposes such as funding, planning, and delivering health services, as well as for detecting fraud and inappropriate payments.
- It establishes an advisory committee to make recommendations to the Minister on matters related to electronic health records.
- It revises rules regarding individual consent directives for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information in electronic health records.
- It allows for disclosure of personal health information despite a consent directive in specific circumstances, such as to prevent serious bodily harm or with express consent.
- It increases fines for offences under the relevant Act and removes the limitation period for prosecution.
- It amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to allow the Minister to require regulated health professional colleges to collect and disclose member information for electronic health records.
- It amends the Drug Interchangeability and Dispensing Fee Act to remove the requirement for certain prescription instructions to be handwritten.
- Health information custodians
- Prescribed organizations involved with electronic health records
- Individuals whose personal health information is in electronic health records
- The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
- Regulated health professional colleges and their members
- The public
- Prescribed organizations must comply with specified requirements when creating or maintaining electronic health records, including auditing, logging, and monitoring access.
- Health information custodians must adhere to restrictions on collecting personal health information from electronic health records, with exceptions for health care provision or risk reduction.
- Individuals have the right to make or withdraw consent directives regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal health information in electronic health records.
- The Minister has the power to direct prescribed organizations regarding their responsibilities for electronic health records.
- Health information custodians may be required by regulation to provide personal health information to a prescribed organization for electronic health record purposes.
- Members of regulated health professional colleges must comply with college requests for information related to electronic health records, if so mandated by regulation.
- The Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- The Act increases fines for offences under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004. Fines can be up to $100,000 for natural persons and up to $500,000 for non-natural persons.
- The Minister can collect personal health information for purposes of funding, planning, and delivering government-funded health services, and for detecting fraud or inappropriate receipt of payments, services, or goods funded by the government.
- The Act increases fines for persons found guilty of offences under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004. For individuals, the fine can be up to $100,000. For non-individuals, the fine can be up to $500,000.
- There is no limitation period for prosecution for offences under the Act.
- Courts can take precautions to avoid disclosing personal health information during a prosecution.
- Prescribed organizations and health information custodians must comply with directives and regulations, with potential consequences for non-compliance not explicitly detailed in the provided text beyond the increased fines.
- The specific organizations that will be 'prescribed organizations' are not named in the bill and will be determined by regulations.
- The details of regulations regarding exceptions, additional requirements, and specific data elements for electronic health records are not provided in the bill text.
- The exact start date for the Act is not specified and will be determined by proclamation.
- The bill does not specify the composition or specific powers of the advisory committee beyond its recommendation-making role.
- The bill refers to 'regulations' for many specific requirements and definitions, which are not included in the provided text.
Removes the requirement for certain instructions on prescriptions to be handwritten, changing it to 'written'.
Source: Section 1
Adds definitions for 'Ministry' and 'prescribed organization'. Modifies Section 34 to permit prescribed persons not acting as health information custodians to collect and use health numbers for electronic health records. Amends Section 51 to extend Part V of the Act to 'prescribed organizations' as if they were health information custodians for specific records, and also applies Part V to certain records in a health information custodian's control. Adds a new Part V.1 titled 'Electronic Health Records', which outlines rules for prescribed organizations, health information custodians, consent directives, and the Minister's powers related to electronic health records. It also modifies clauses 72 (2) (a) and (b) to increase fines for offences and amends Section 72 to allow courts to take precautions to avoid disclosure of personal health information during prosecutions.
Source: Section 2
Allows the Minister to make regulations requiring regulated health professional colleges to collect specific information from their members for electronic health records and to disclose this information to a prescribed organization. Members would be required to comply with these requests.
Source: Section 3
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced