I hear you @wendy55 - I am so pleased that you received some help from the Cancer Council and don't have to continue all those bloody forms being filled in ....
I have asked Can Assist if they are aware of similar groups available to rural Cancer Patients in other states. xx
It was the hospital social worker that put us onto Can Assist late last year & they helped us with a fuel & Woollies voucher & they paid a Council Bill .... we'd never heard of them before, either. So maybe check with your Breast Care Nurse to see if they are able to check into it? When I was having my Rads in 2018, the Hospital social worker put me onto the Cancer Council when I got that $500 bill for my own pathology that wasn't covered by medicare & it just broke me (not covered by private health care either ...) and they paid for that. To this day, I still don't know why it was knocked back by medicare ....
When they knock you back - IPTAAS sends you an email with an attachment to open, to read why you've been knocked back - another inefficiency, when they could have just copied it directly into the email ..... and then the attachment wouldn't open on my laptop - so I had to go back to the desktop ... I received 7 of them in a week - most of them sent to my husband's obsolete email address, even tho I'd asked for all communications to come directly to me! grrr
NSW IPTAAS currently requires EVERY specialist you see to have a NEW referral form from the GP/Specialist every 2 years (and you are supposed to remember the dates!) whether the patient is Stage 4 or not .... which is just more unnecessary paperwork for the rural patient (and unnecessary expense for multiple visits to the GP for said form to be signed as they never 'come due' at the same time!) Every referral should be for the length of the illness (if they get better, we won't be submitting repeat Trip Diaries anyway) or until the patient has passed away - in which case, no more submissions either! Even if a 'code' was needed for submissions to tie it back to that 'permission' ....
I missed out on all compensation in 2010 with hubby's first surgery/chemo etc as I was just so tied up with his surgery, recovery, chemo, recovery etc and was emotionally & physically spent anyway ... as there was a one year limit on the time you could submit the paperwork & I was 2 weeks too late, so it was denied. ..... (Now it is 2 years that I believe that you can submit it ....). So make sure you double check that too!
If you stay in private accommodation whilst undergoing treatment, you can also claim $20 a night - I bet you've done that before, Wendy? .... but this was never explained to me, so I never claimed for it either! It is like 'secret business' - don't tell anyone, or they might make a claim! .... when it should be made available to EVERY rural patient, once it is determined that they will need to travel to get decent treatment that most city folk take for granted, as it is already available on their doorstep.
Like you, I appreciate everything we 'get' - but when it is mishandled & made almost impossible to access - they've got it wrong. Someone needs to do a spreadsheet of actual rural patients requiring 'outside' treatment vs actual claims! They will be stunned that most don't even bother claiming as they've made it SO difficult to do so!
I am my husband's carer too - I recall being given the 3rd degree, to sign up for it!
If politicians were being paid $20/40 a night towards THEIR accommodation expenses, they would be screaming!
