AFHTO has confirmed the ministry’s willingness to be flexible in considering reallocation requests to support OHT implementation and/or AFHTO projects.
However, FHTs are still obliged to follow the conditions imposed by Article 7.3 and Article 12 (see below) within the Family Health Team Agreement.
This means:
- The ministry cannot approve reallocation requests for something that was not pre-approved and already purchased.
- The ministry cannot approve reallocation requests over $10K for items that are not competitively acquired (single sourced). Three (3) quotes are required.
- Any spending by a FHT on OHT-related activities must ensure that the FHT remains accountable to the ministry and that responsibility cannot be passed to a third party.
- FHTs are eligible to reallocate funds equaling the lesser of up to 10% of the total annual budget or $10,000 (the “tolerance threshold”) between semi-global budget categories without written ministry approval, except:
- From any category to the Physician Consulting category
- From any category to Physician Compensation, including Specialist Sessionals
When making your request, please keep in mind it can not be described as a ‘donation’ or ‘sponsorship.’ Teams must clearly identify the goods, equipment or service being purchased (i.e., teams need to outline what they are buying).
Examples of acceptable requests:
Reallocation to support OHT implementation, approved samples:
- OHT project management support from February 1 to March 31, 2020.
- Cost sharing of project management costs. Continued support of the stakeholder partners during leadership meetings including, but not necessarily limited to, further development of governance structure, researching best practices for priority populations, and leading the execution planning of year one population.
- Consulting costs to review the current state and to make recommendations for service delivery models for home and community care for defined population.
- Cost sharing of Ontario Health Team planning/organizing/staffing/consulting.
- Consulting fees – FHT strategic focus areas and planning.
- ECost sharing of coordination, data analysis, and facilitation for Primary Care Engagement Session.
- Cost sharing of connecting clinical data elements across sectors for reporting and analytics. The intent is to put in place a proof of concept for pulling in Primary Care Data from 1-2 EMRs into a broader Clinical Data Repository. The goal is to create an environment where primary care and acute care can correlate data for reporting and analytics purposes.
Reallocation to support AFHTO projects – please choose one of the following when making your requests:
- To help support ongoing implementation of Ontario Health Teams and the development of clinical pathways.
- To help improve primary care connectivity, achieve better alignment across the sector, and strengthen leadership capacity.
- To help develop a suite of tools and resources to support effective board oversight and promote collaborative governance strategies across sectors.
- To help develop strategies to spread innovations across organizations and regions and support platforms which enable cross-provincial dialogue, knowledge transfer and exchange.
Article 7.3
All Funding shall be applied directly to the payment of Schedule “B” expenditures, and for no other purpose. The Recipient shall expend the Funding in each Funding Year only in accordance with the Annual Budget for each Funding Year. No changes to the approved items in Schedule “B” are permitted without the prior written consent of the Ministry, unless otherwise specified in this Agreement.
This article imposes an obligation on the recipient to request prior written consent from the ministry to deviate from their budget and the purpose of the budget.
Article 12.0
The Recipient shall acquire goods, equipment and services purchased with the Funding as follows:
1. where the cost of the goods, equipment or service is between $10,000 and $100,000, inclusive, the Recipient has the option of acquiring such goods, equipment or service through either: (i) an invitational competitive process in which the Recipient obtains quotes from 3 or more vendors, or (ii) an open competitive process, and
2. where the cost of the goods, equipment or service is over $100,000, the Recipient must acquire the goods, equipment or service through an open competitive process.