People who live on farms or in the small villages that are dotted across the Australian landscape have a problem when they need medical treatment. So often, that treatment is available at one of the big hub towns that have a major base hospital but if they need to stay several days for treatment the cost of accommodation can be financially crippling.
That is the big difference between being admitted to hospital and being treated as an outpatient. As a consequence, subsidized accommodation was installed at the base hospitals in Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Coff's Harbour, Port Macquarie and Albury and the rate set at $43 a night single, $ 60 double. This was termed " Isolated Patients Transport and Accommodation Assistance Scheme. ( IPTAAS ).
This accommodation charge was fully claimable, hence those on low incomes and pensioners were able to access medical care and treatment with no out of pocket expenses, similar to the costs associated with those living in the nation's big cities.
On September 1, as a result of a cost review that charge for this patient accommodation increased to $63 a night single, $80 double, but the bureaucracy failed to amend the supporting legislation to make this revised IPTAAS claimable. Claims are paid at the old rate and consequently patients are now twenty dollars a night out of pocket, and that is straining the finances of our less affluent country residents.
As so often happens with government schemes, should an IPTAAS patient secure commercial accommodation in a base hospital town this legislation will pay that higher $63 single and $80 double claim, but not if the patient chooses to use the accommodation specifically provided within the government base hospital. Patients are now finding that in the "off tourist season "many motels are happy to lower their charge to fall within this patient claimable limit.
The big question is what delay will occur until the bureaucracy gets it's act together and cobbles the necessary amendments between departments to make this new charge claimable under the IPTAAS scheme ? We are well into Spring and the tourist season will shortly go into high gear - and those subsidized motel rooms will shortly dwindle.
This is the sort of SNAFU that causes the retired to cling to city living. Proximity to reliable medical care is a big factor in decision making and many elderly people can make a big capital gain by selling the family home and reestablishing to a small country town or coastal fishing village - provided that isolation does not cut them off from a reasonable degree of health care.
It is a fact of life that as we age, our need for medical treatment increases and IPTAAS was a good idea to spread health costs and even the provision of care between the cities and country towns. It is a pity that in this case a fairly simple bungle is causing disquiet that will be long remembered when retirees are making plans for their future.
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