Ontario Connecting People in the North to Health Care Services

Improvements to the Northern Health Travel Grant program now in effect

Ministry of Health -  Special to The Bulletin

December 01, 2024 - TORONTO – Starting today, the Ontario government’s expansion to the Northern Health Travel Grant is now in effect. Over the next three years, the province is investing $45 million to expand the Northern Health Travel Grant program to help people in Northern Ontario connect to the specialized care and services they need. This will reduce expenses while making it easier for Northern families to connect to the care they need.
“Our government is continuing to take action to expand health care access in every corner of the province,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “The improvements to the Northern Health Travel Grant now in effect will reduce costs and simplify access, ensuring more people can easily and conveniently connect to the specialized care they need, when they need it.”
As of today, December 1, 2024, expansions and improvements to the Northern Health Travel Grant now in effect are:

• Increased reimbursements for overnight trips to better reflect people’s needs and increased costs, including:

1. Increasing the accommodation allowance from $100 to $175 per night, as well as increasing the total allowance for eight or more nights from $550 to $1,150.
   
2. Reducing the travel distance requirement to be eligible for overnight accommodation allowance from 200 kilometres to 100 kilometres.
   
3. Expanding eligibility to include medical travel companions accompanying a patient who is hospitalized.

• Eliminating the need for a signature from the referring health care provider, making the application process faster and easier.
  
• Removing the 100-kilometre deductible and reimbursing every kilometre travelled to help offset higher gas prices.
  
• Adding more eligible health care providers and more facility locations, such as community laboratories, to help more people get reimbursed for their incurred costs.

The government will also be introducing a more convenient online application form in Spring 2025 that includes digital receipt submissions which will help families get their reimbursement faster.
The Northern Health Travel Grant provides eligible patients with financial assistance to help cover the related costs they can incur when travelling to access OHIP-insured health care services that are not available within a 100-kilometre radius of where they live. These include specialist visits and some diagnostic services that are not available in their local communities. For example, this can help families access publicly funded services through the recently expanded Ontario Fertility Program which the government invested $150 million in funding to triple the number of families across the province with access to publicly funded fertility services.
Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is making it easier and faster for people to connect to care when they need it, no matter where they live.