Bill S-5 and the Problem Your Health Records Already Know About

If you've ever had to repeat your health history to a new provider — medications, allergies, what your last doctor found, what they were supposed to follow up on — you already understand the problem the federal government is trying to solve.

On February 4, 2026, Senator Marjorie Michel introduced Bill S-5, the Connected Care for Canadians Act. The bill has a straightforward aim: set common standards for how health information moves between providers and provinces, and ban the data blocking that keeps your records locked inside one system.

It's a significant step. And the problem it addresses is one most Canadians have felt firsthand.

The problem in numbers

Canada's healthcare system runs on fragmented information. Despite 95% of physicians using electronic medical records, most of those systems don't talk to each other.

Only 29% of primary care providers share health information electronically outside their own offices. Fax machines remain the default method for sending records between clinics, specialists, and hospitals.

When you move, switch doctors, or see a specialist, your history often doesn't follow you. You become the messenger — carrying your own story between providers who are reading your chart for the first time.

Senator Michel has called the current state of health data sharing "entirely unacceptable." The gap between what technology can do and what the system actually delivers is that wide.

What Bill S-5 would change

The bill focuses on three areas:

Common interoperability standards. Health technology companies and providers would follow shared rules for how data is structured and exchanged. The goal: your records move with you, regardless of which system your doctor uses.

A ban on data blocking. Right now, some systems make it difficult — by design — to share information with other platforms. Bill S-5 would prohibit this practice, removing one of the biggest barriers to connected care.

A path for research and innovation. Secure, de-identified health data would become available for research purposes, supporting public health planning and clinical advances while protecting individual privacy.

The bill is now before the Senate and will work through the parliamentary process. If passed, it would mark the first national framework for health data interoperability in Canada.

Why this matters to you

The frustrations Bill S-5 is designed to solve — fragmented records, lost context, care that doesn't carry forward — are exactly what Your Health Story was built to close.

Connected care — the kind where your history, your results, and your care plan are visible to every provider who needs them — isn't a new idea. It's just been difficult to deliver inside a system built on disconnected records.

What connected care looks like in practice

Your Health Story is the unified record at the centre of every Stem Health membership. It connects every visit, every result, and every care decision in one place — a living timeline that your care team carries forward.

Here's what that means day to day:

When you message your care team about a new symptom, the response comes back informed by your full history — not a chart someone is reading for the first time.

When your annual assessment results arrive, they're compared against your previous markers. Your care team explains what's changed, what it means, and what to do next — in plain language.

When you see a specialist, they have context before the appointment starts. No clipboard. No "tell me everything from the beginning."

This is care that remembers you — and builds on what it knows. It's not dependent on a bill passing — it's how our members' care works today.

What we're watching

Bill S-5 is early in the legislative process. We're following it closely, particularly:

How interoperability standards are defined — and whether they create real portability for clients, not just compliance checkboxes for vendors.

Ontario's primary care expansion — the province is creating room for care models built around continuity, which aligns with how we practice.

What this means for the broader system — connected care at a national level would benefit everyone, not just those with access to membership-based practices.

We think the future of Canadian healthcare is one where your data, your history, and your care plan work together — and work for you. Bill S-5 is a step in that direction.

We'll keep you updated as it progresses. And if you have questions about how Your Health Story works for you today, your Care Team is always a message away.

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