Kingston doctor wins another legal victory as court denies OHIP appeal request

Ontario’s highest court has refused to hear an appeal by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in the case of a Kingston physician ordered to repay more than $600,000 tied to pandemic-era COVID-19 vaccination clinic billings, marking another significant legal victory for Dr. Elaine Ma.

In a brief endorsement released Friday, May 8, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal for Ontario denied OHIP’s request for leave to appeal a December 2025 Divisional Court ruling that had partially favoured Ma. The panel — consisting of Justices Jonathon C. George, David M. Paciocco, and Julie Thorburn — heard the matter in writing before dismissing OHIP’s appeal bid.

“Leave to appeal is denied,” the endorsement states. The court also ordered OHIP to pay $5,000 in legal costs to Ma.

In an email shared with Kingstonist, Ma’s lawyer confirmed the outcome shortly after the decision was released.

“Just received. Endorsement of Court of Appeal with leave denied,” Ottawa lawyer Graham Ragan wrote to Ma on the afternoon of Thursday, May 7, 2026.

Ma organized 48 mass vaccination clinics in Kingston during the COVID-19 pandemic and was later ordered by OHIP to repay $600,962 because of alleged billing non-compliance. The repayment order was previously upheld by the Health Services Appeal and Review Board (HSARB).

However, in a decision released on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, Ontario’s Divisional Court found it was unreasonable for the Board to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic did not constitute an “extenuating circumstance” when assessing Ma’s billings.

Rather than overturning the repayment order outright, the Divisional Court sent the matter back to HSARB to reconsider how much, if anything, Ma should be required to repay.

OHIP subsequently sought leave to appeal that ruling, arguing that the Divisional Court improperly interfered with the Board’s findings and misapplied the legal standard for judicial review.

The Court of Appeal’s refusal to grant leave means the Divisional Court ruling now stands.

The matter is expected to return to HSARB, which must reconsider the repayment issue while taking into account the Divisional Court’s findings regarding the extraordinary operational pressures physicians faced during the pandemic vaccine rollout.

In a statement previously provided to Kingstonist following the Divisional Court ruling, Ma said the ongoing litigation sent a troubling message to doctors who stepped up during the public health emergency.

“Doctors were asked to move quickly, adapt constantly, and vaccinate as many people as possible,” Ma said at the time.

The case has drawn attention locally and within Ontario’s medical community because of its broader implications for how physicians’ pandemic-era decisions are assessed years later through ordinary administrative and billing frameworks.

For now, the Court of Appeal’s decision leaves intact a lower court finding that the unprecedented realities of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout --- a process championed by the provincial government at the time --- could not simply be ignored when evaluating physicians’ actions during one of the largest vaccination campaigns in Ontario history.

Kingstonist has reached out to Ma for comment on this development. Additional coverage of this matter will be provided if further information becomes available.