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Presentation Description
Institution: The Wollongong Hospital - NSW, Australia
Purpose/Introduction:
The rising living costs have significantly impacted the rural/regional population. The costs associated with accommodation and travelling from rural/regional towns to the hospital are high. They often have to drive more than 200km and pay for accommodation and fuel on top of the medical fees. We aim to perform a systematic review to evaluate what government/hospital related incentives are available in different states for the rural/regional population.
Methodology:
We have interviewed different hospital-affiliated hospital accommodations and individual local health district (LHD) to obtain in-depth information about the actual cost patients have to pay. We have collected information and data from different state government-led websites.
Results:
Private vehicle transport subsidy is 40c (NSW), 20c (NT), 34c (QLD), 32c (SA), 24c (TAS), 21c (VIC) and 16c (WA) per kilometre travelled. Range from $40 to $160 per night is reimbursed for private accommodation stay across different states. The patient/family can claim up to $120/night for 8 or more nights per financial year for not-for-profit/for-profit accommodation in NSW. Air travel will be subsidised or reimbursed for approved reasons. All government websites have offered online/paper claim with over-the-phone support to make the claiming process easier. Claim needs to be filled in by a medical practitioner for the first visit, only a single-form is required for subsequent visits within the first 24 months to the same medical practitioner. Retrospective claims within 24 months will be acceptable.
Conclusion/s:
In this era of rising living costs and profound inflation, we aim to deliver easier access to medical services especially in the rural settings. We aim to present the transparency and claiming process under different state governments and the cost of hospital-affiliated accommodations in regional/rural Australia.
Speakers
Authors
Authors
Dr Zhi Kiat Sia - , Dr Tam Nguyen -