{"id":5032,"date":"2020-02-05T01:58:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T01:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=5032"},"modified":"2020-02-05T01:58:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T01:58:20","slug":"travel-subsidies-for-patients-in-bushfire-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/05\/travel-subsidies-for-patients-in-bushfire-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"TRAVEL SUBSIDIES FOR PATIENTS IN BUSHFIRE AREAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The NSW Government will help regional and rural patients impacted by bushfires with their travel and accommodation costs when attending specialist medical treatments.<br \/>\nDeputy Premier John Barilaro said the NSW Government is looking at ways to support bushfire-affected communities with practical solutions to make life a little easier during an incredibly tough time.<br \/>\n\u201cPeople in bushfire-affected areas have enough to worry about at the moment without the additional stress of finding extra money to travel long distances to see a specialist.\u201d<br \/>\nHealth Minister Brad Hazzard said the criteria for the Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS) will be broadened so patients impacted by bushfires can access the subsidy to help cover out-of-pocket costs.<br \/>\n\u201cSome patients in regional and rural areas will have to travel a longer route or extend their stay due to road closures or poor weatherconditions, so this scheme will help ease some of the financial pressure,\u201d Mr Hazzard said.<br \/>\nThe IPTAAS provides subsidies for transport and accommodation expenses incurred when travelling at least 100km, or a cumulative distance of at least 200km in a week for specialist medical treatment.<br \/>\nCancer Council NSW\u2019s Director of Information and Support Services Annie Miller said the scheme would assist cancer patients unable to return home between treatments.<br \/>\n\u201cThis will make a significant difference to patients and their families having regular cancer treatments who haven\u2019t been able to return home due to road closures or poor air quality and have been forced to spend more on accommodation and travel,\u201d Ms Miller said.<br \/>\nPatients are encouraged to include additional information such as extenuating circumstances and tax invoices within their applications.Anyone experiencing financial hardship should contact IPTAAS to discuss payment options.<br \/>\nInvestment in IPTAAS has more than doubled over the past seven years, from $12.2 million in 2011-12 to $25.9 million in 2018-19, helping more than 30,000 patients.<br \/>\nFor more information about the IPTAAS scheme, call 1800 478 227 or go to:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iptaas.health.nsw.gov.au\/home\">http:\/\/www.iptaas.health.nsw.gov.au\/home<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NSW Government will help regional and rural patients impacted by bushfires with their travel and accommodation costs when attending specialist medical treatments. Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the NSW Government is looking at ways to support bushfire-affected communities with practical solutions to make life a little easier during an incredibly tough time. \u201cPeople in &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/05\/travel-subsidies-for-patients-in-bushfire-areas\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;TRAVEL SUBSIDIES FOR PATIENTS IN BUSHFIRE AREAS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}