Rural patients who must travel to Thunder Bay and other cities for medical care can now get more of their costs covered under tweaks to the province’s Northern Health Travel Grant program.
Starting on Sunday, people who submitted an application to the program no longer had to apply a 100-kilometre deductible.
In a news release, the Ministry of Health said it’s eliminating the deductible to “reimburse every kilometre travelled to help offset higher gas prices:”
Northerners who travel for medical reasons can receive coverage under the travel grant program at 41 cents per kilometre, as long as the care they need is not available within 100 kilometre of their residence.
In the last fiscal year, the ministry approved 200,000 travel grant applications worth just over $54 million. The average pay-out was about $320, with the majority of processing times taking four to six weeks, the ministry said.
Another upgrade that began on Sunday allows patients and caregivers to apply to have some of their accommodation costs covered if they travel 100 kilometres to an appointment. Prior to Sunday, the cut-off was 200 kilometres, the news release said.
As well, accommodation allowances are being upped to $175 per night from $100, the ministry said.
Independent MPP Mike Mantha, one of the grant program’s long-time critics, said he welcomed the changes but noted it took several years of prodding before the Conservative government put them into place.
“It still boggles my mind that something so simple . . . could take so much waiting and prying to get out of this government,” Mantha (Algoma-Manitoulin) said in a bulletin.
The ministry said it’s also finally going to introduce an online form next spring that will allow grant applicants to submit digital receipts, “which will help families get their reimbursement faster.”
Private health insurers have employed a similar online system for several years.
