This Bill would require the Minister of Health to establish a committee to look into how to improve reimbursements for travel costs for residents of Northern Ontario to receive healthcare.
There’s a few specific areas the committee is expected to look into:
- Ensuring the rate of reimbursement reflects actual travel and accommodation costs
- Enhancing communication with applicants
- Better timelines for assessing claims
- Broadening the types of healthcare that qualify for reimbursement
- Introducing pre-payment for costs, especially for repeat visits
- Introducing direct payment to providers of lodging and transportation
- Introducing payment for expenses incurred by a travel companion
- Simplifying and modernizing the process for proving expenses (ie electronic submission of receipts)
- Reviewing the current policies for the Northern Health Travel Grant
There’s also a list of stakeholders the committee is required to consult, including the Association of Ontario Midwives, the Ontario Autism Coalition, and Cancer Care Ontario.
Six months after being established the committee is to report back on its findings.
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