Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme
Published on 29 November 2019 11:40 AM
Did you know that if you're referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by your doctor, dentist or another primary care health professional, you may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS)?
Put briefly, you can claim for help with travel costs if you or your partner receive one of the qualifying benefits AND you have a referral from a healthcare professional to a specialist or a hospital AND your appointment is on a separate visit to when the referral was made.
You can claim travel costs for an escort if your health professional says it's medically necessary for someone to travel with you.
You can read more on the NHS website 'Help with healthcare travel costs' pages
If you have questions about help with health costs, join the Help with Health Costs team on Facebook, where the NHS Business Services Authority will respond to your queries Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
You can also travel free of charge to early morning hospital appointments. If you need to travel before 9.30am in order to get to/from the appointment, just show your hospital appointment card or letter with your Concessionary Travel Pass or Metro Gold Card when requested.