Medical travel expenses

[JackieD]

My son is a recipient of ODSP and has to go to hospital for surgery
the end of January. I will be taking him down. the hospital is 1.5 hrs
away (over 120 km) Can I request ODSP help with travel costs prior to
going or do I have to wait and submit the receipts after he comes
home? Is there another way? any guidance would be appreciated. After
paying bills this month Im broke.. I am also on ODSP and work a few
hours a month..

[Andreas Novotny]

I found that ODSP pays afterwards. However you may be eligible for
transportation through a Community Care Access programme where
volunteers drive clients to medical appointments (and social
appointments under some circumstances.) If you are eligible for CCA,
they usually wait to reimburse the drivers until your reimbursement
comes from ODSP. Check locally.

A.

At 11:20 AM -0800 12/28/09, JackieD posted:

[Star]

you CAN request costs for travel expenses in advance but its a bit
difficult to get. the rules have changed for travel expenses *eye
roll* for medical trips OF COURSE, so now you have to get an MSN
travel sheet, get your doctor to fill it out for the trip and take it
to the office as well as get a letter stating why you are making the
trip.

due to the timing of your trip AND the fact that you both are on ODSP
its so stupid that they expect us to have the monies saved to pay out
for medical trips and then submit recipts. my suggestion is to fill
out all the paperwork IMMEDIATELY, get the letters signed [write them
yourself and be very specific in them of why you are going etc, the
route you are taking and gas consumption/parking fees EVERY possible
cost imaginable outlined including hotel and food- you do get a food
allowance of $5 breakfast, $8 lunch and $10 dinner per day per person
when you do take a medical trip] and have your GP sign off on them
ALL.

then request a face to face with your worker in your local office to
get a cheque cut for you immediately because its just after xmas and
you have no extra money to spare for a medical trip as best as you
tried to save for it, it was not possible. you live in poverty as it
is. stress is high. etc etc.

they likely will tell you it will take a day or two and they will make
an exception for this trip blah blah but you SHOULD get the monies for
the trip.

as far as i am concerned they shouldn't be making "exceptions" for
this kind of thing and it should be standard procedure for medical
necessary trips to have certain forms set out for the money to make
them. i understand that its an easier cash grab for those who would
know how to work the system but if you have enough doctors signing
papers saying you were at appointment _x_ and that you need to be at
appointment _a_ its not as easy as the gov't tries to make it look;
especially when many of us need to see specialists in other cities
than where we live these days.

its so asinine to make you have to work so hard for medical reasons on
this system and when the majority of people on the system do not KNOW
how to simply use the backwards 8,000 rule system it makes things so
difficult.

-star