{"id":897455,"date":"2026-09-16T04:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897455\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T04:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T04:12:12","slug":"lantz-wants-islanders-to-be-prioritized-as-for-profit-health-company-operates-in-p-e-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897455\/","title":{"rendered":"Lantz wants Islanders to be prioritized as for-profit health company operates in P.E.I."},"content":{"rendered":"

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For Rob Lantz, the issue is simple: Prince Edward Island’s health-care professionals should be servicing the province’s residents.<\/p>\n

The P.E.I. premier spoke with Mainstreet host Mitch Cormier on Tuesday, where he elaborated on comments he had previously made on social media.<\/p>\n

“P.E.I., like all provinces, has a shortage of primary health-care professionals and we’re working hard to attract and retain professionals and working very hard to affiliate Islanders with primary access care,” Lantz said on Mainstreet.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s really problematic when the health resources in P.E.I. are prioritizing tourists and non-residents over Islanders who pay taxes.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | P.E.I. premier wants to ‘put a stop’ to private for-profit health-care company:\"\"<\/p>\n

P.E.I. premier wants to \u2018put a stop\u2019 to private for-profit health-care company<\/p>\n

P.E.I.’s premier says he plans to stop a private company from offering health care to tourists who are willing to pay. Rob Lantz said on social media that he’s “outraged” after the CEO of PEIDoctor.com appeared on CBC News: Compass to explain how the business works. CBC\u2019s Steve Bruce reports.<\/p>\n

In an interview on CBC News: Compass, Marius Croeser, the CEO of PEIDoctor.com \u2014 a private service offering doctor appointments to some visitors to the province for a fee \u2014 defended his company, telling host Louise Martin that the services provided are necessary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lantz quickly made a statement online, stating he was “outraged” that PEIDoctor.com is prioritizing for-profit health-care services in the province and that he had directed the Department of Health and Wellness to review and find a way to stop it.<\/p>\n

PEIDoctor.com has been operating in P.E.I. for several months and its website says it can provide international visitors and Quebec residents with same-day, non-emergency access to a physician, including on weekends, evenings and through house calls to a hotel, cottage or AirBnB. Costs range from $229 for a virtual consultation to $900 or more for house calls.<\/p>\n

PEIDoctor.com’s sole physician currently does so outside of normal work hours<\/a> with Health P.E.I., Croeser told CBC News in a previous interview.<\/p>\n

“If health-care professionals have time to service non-residents, they should choose to service Islanders instead,” Lantz told Mainstreet.<\/p>\n

“I just believe that Islanders should be prioritized given the circumstances we’re in with so many Islanders \u2026 still unaffiliated, and we’re working on a very aggressive plan to affiliate people and that’s starting to bear fruit.”<\/p>\n

\"A‘If health-care professionals have time to service non-residents, they should choose to service Islanders instead,’ says P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz. (CBC)<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Wellness had previously confirmed to CBC News that the company wasn’t breaking any rules because international visitors aren’t insured through the province’s public health-care system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That leaves them the option of going to an emergency room or walk-in clinic on the Island and paying the government, or paying a private company.<\/p>\n

Lantz said he isn’t saying that what the company is doing is illegal but that it is not the province’s priority.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s using resources in a way that Islanders would feel is unfair to those who have been waiting to be affiliated and to have access to primary care,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It just doesn’t make sense to me given the circumstances we’re in, and I think it’s that simple. And I think Islanders will see it that way, as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-897455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}