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Health Card Validation

Note: If you're a patient inquiring about your OHIP health card, eligibility and/or coverage, please contact ServiceOntario at 416-314-5518 or Toll-free 1-866-532-3161 or visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/health-cards for more information. 

What is Health Card Validation Basic? Health Card Validation Basic (HCV Basic) is a free service offered by OntarioMD in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH). It allows users to validate the eligibility of a patient's health card against the Ministry databases in real-time. Response time is within a few seconds. You must be a registered user of OntarioMD.ca to use this service.


HCV Basic service:
  • Allows users to validate health card numbers and version codes with the Ministry in real-time.
  • Returns only a response code which indicates the patient's health card number status and OHIP eligibility.
  • Allows users to validate patient eligibility for fee services (optional).
  • Returns Fee Service response code and last date of service (if existed).

HCV Basic service does not:
  • Return any personal health information (PHI).
  • Provide the corrected or updated health card number.
  • Return new or updated version code.
  • Guarantee payment of any claim submitted for providing a health care service to patients.

Sign into your OntarioMD.ca account. Once you are logged in, you may access and launch Health Card Validation from the your home page.


If your staff members need access to HCV Basic:

Staff may be granted access to HCV Basic by their sponsoring physician or staff manager. Please refer to the OntarioMD.ca Portal User Guide  or call OntarioMD support desk for assistance at 1-866-744-8668.

How It Works

Your request is submitted to MOH and a response code (i.e. a one or two-digit number) is returned upon successful transaction.

The response is colour coded as green, yellow or red depending on the eligibility status of a health card. If you hover over the question mark, you will see the code description.

If you have opted for Fee Service eligibility verification, a fee service response code and last date of service will be returned too.
For information on the response codes please refer to the MOH Health Card Validation Reference Manual.


Which Card Readers Will Work With This Service?

The OntarioMD team have tested or physicians have reported that the following card readers populate the Health Number and Version Code fields:

  • Unitech K2724

  • POSH MX53 - USB

  • MAGTEK 21040140 - USB

If you have tried a different card reader that worked with the HCV Basic service, please email us the make and model to support@ontariomd.com. We will include it in the list.


OntarioMD Support

The HCV Basic service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you have any questions, please contact support at 1.866.744.8668 or support@ontariomd.com. Support is available during regular business hours 9 AM to 5 PM Monday to Friday.