FNHA Medical Transportation Bulletin
November 2023  |  Vol 02  |  No 10

Welcome! Wytkp! Gilakas’la! Shhweenustham!

We hope you enjoyed the October issue of the Journeys bulletin.

Journeys is now in its second year! Thank you for your readership as we strive to provide helpful content and updates for your community's Medical Transportation (MT) program. We sincerely appreciate your partnership in delivering and transforming the MT benefit.

Important changes to the Weekly Meal Rate

First Nations Health Benefits and Services (FNHBS) aims to ensure everyone can access healthy food options when travelling outside their home communities for medical care. As a reminder, all meal rates previously increased on Oct. 1, 2023.

In response to feedback from the MT Transformation engagements, the FNHBS increased the meal rates for stays over six nights that include an Escort. Effective Nov. 1, 2023, Clients and their approved Escort will now receive $425 per week for meals.

This represents a 50% increase from the previous combined rate of $283 per week, which covered both the Client and the Escort. Please note that trips over five days in duration require an exception. Please refer to section 7 of the MT User Guide for more information regarding exceptions.

As of Nov. 1, 2023, meal rates are reflected as follows:

*Note: The rate of $425 per week is an inclusive rate for the Client and Escort and applies only when the Client is an outpatient. An approved Escort supporting a client in the hospital will continue to access the weekly meal rate of $283 per week.

For more information, please visit our news post here. 

MT Benefit Schedule & User Guide Updates

Recent updates have been made to the MT Benefit Schedule and the MT User Guide to align both documents with the latest Meal Rate changes. The most up-to-date version of the MT Benefits Schedule was posted on November 1 and can be found here.

To support a better understanding of the changes and the scenarios that may arise, we have included additional examples in the MT User Guide. This guide is supplementary to both the MT Benefits Schedule and the training provided by MT Operations. If you would like to request an updated copy, please reach out to transportation@fnha.ca

Bringing Kucén to Communities

We are thrilled to announce that since September 2023, multiple community health services organizations have gone live with Kucén (pronounced koo-hen from the Secwepemctsin language) and have begun utilizing the system to process travel arrangements. Since April 2023, the FNHA MT Operations team has successfully utilized Kucén for their travel arrangements. The MT Project Team is working closely with MT Operations and the leading communities to continuously monitor and enhance system effectiveness.

If your community is interested in adopting the Kucén system, we encourage you to participate in our Kucén Survey or contact us at mtproject@fnha.ca.

MT Training for PT Clerks

The MT Operations team hosts regular training sessions throughout the year. If you or any member of your community would like to attend an MT training session, please contact transportation@fnha.ca to sign up. One of our team members will be in touch about training dates and next steps.

Thank You for Your Valuable Insights!

We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our recent survey, which concluded on Oct. 31, 2023. Your feedback is incredibly valuable as we continue our journey to enhance your newsletter experience.

We are thrilled to announce that the winner of the $50 gift card is Kimberly Nookemus from Huuayaht First Nation.

Look out for an upcoming edition where we will share a summary of the survey results, demonstrating how your feedback shapes our newsletter.

Thank you