Travel and transport

Travel for treatment and rehabilitation

We’ll work together on the best way for you to travel for treatment and rehabilitation. We can contribute to transport costs when you travel to the nearest provider for the following:

• treatment, like a physio or doctor’s appointment
• social rehabilitation, like counselling or rongoā
• vocational rehabilitation, like a work-related programme, or course we have asked you to attend
• rehabilitation assessment or reassessment
• in-patient, out-patient or residential rehabilitation that we have approved
• picking up an aid or appliance, or having this fitted
• a training for independence programme 

Types of transport we can help with

We can help with transport expenses when you need to travel to treatment and rehabilitation appointments. There are guidelines on costs and distances and in some cases you’ll need prior approval. There are the types of transport we can help with:

• private motor vehicle, like a car
• public transport
• taxis or a driving companion service
• air travel
• accommodation

Travel cost guidelines

If you are requesting support with travel costs there are some guidelines.

Health provider location

Travel needs to be to your nearest treatment or rehabilitation provider.

Public transport

We’ll reimburse the actual cost of travelling by public transport to your nearest treatment or rehabilitation provider. Proof is needed and might be the travel ticket or e-receipt from your travel card app.

Travel distance - not including public transport

You can apply for travel costs if:

• You travel more than 20km from the starting point of your journey to the nearest place for rehabilitation within 14 days after the injury date, or
• the total distance accumulated from all your journeys to rehabilitation is more than 80km within any calendar month.

Private motor vehicle

We are legally required to pay 29 cents per kilometre, including GST, if you travel over the mentioned distances (20km in a single trip within 14 days of your injury or over 80km in a month).

Other transport services

This includes taxis or a driving companion service if you’re unable to travel alone.

We will reimburse the actual cost you spend travelling by other transport services if we agree in advance that:

• it is the best way of getting to your treatment or rehabilitation
• you do not have natural support available, for example, walking to the appointment or a family member driving you
• you can’t use public transport because of your injury.

How to apply for travel costs

Get prior approval

Before your appointment, talk to your recovery team to get prior approval. It will be faster for us to process travel costs and make a payment to you if you have this already.

If you have prior approval, there are two ways to apply for a travel cost repayment.

Use MyACC

If you travelled by car (not including taxis), you can use MyACC and add your travel details online. Log in to MyACC and head to the Support section, then scroll down to ‘Transport and getting around’.

If your travel was more than 12 months ago, you will need to complete an ACC250 reimbursement form, rather than use MyACC.

You can also apply to organise taxis in advance if you have prior approval for this.

Learn about MyACC

Complete a travel reimbursement form

If you’re not able to use MyACC, or travel was not by a private car, complete the ACC250 travel reimbursement form. Send this to us with the information requested on the form.

If you did not get prior approval, you can still submit a travel reimbursement. It may take longer to process as we will need to check proof of attendance with your health provider. We may need to contact you for more information before approving the reimbursement.

Download the Word version of the ACC250 travel reimbursement form. Complete the form and return to us with proof of attendance. You can send this by email or post, the details are on the form.

We’ll contact you

We try to process applications within 10 business days. We’ll contact you to let you know when the travel reimbursement has been approved and payment is being made.

Ten tips for reimbursing travel

1. Talk with your recovery team about transport options and work out the best option for you.

2. Travel should be to the nearest health provider from your location.

3. Getting prior approval can speed up processing and payment of travel costs into your bank account.

4. You can apply for reimbursement of costs for travel has happened in the last 12 months – but not future travel.

5. If you have made multiple trips to treatment or rehabilitation by car, you can easily use MyACC to apply for reimbursement of these costs. You don’t need to submit individual applications.

6. Use MyACC to request payments for yourself, not on behalf of someone else.

7. If you have authority to act on behalf of someone else, you will need to request reimbursement using the ACC250 client travel reimbursement form.

8. It may be faster to use MyACC than the ACC250 form. Talk with your recovery team if you urgently need the travel costs to be repaid.

9. Take the ACC250 form to your treatment or rehabilitation appointment so your health provider can sign to confirm your attendance.

10. When we talk about travel within a month, the month starts from the date of one month and ends before the same date of the following month, for example 15 May to 14 June.

Other travel-related support

Less common travel types

These transport types are less common, and all require prior approval, so talk with your recovery team about this.

• Air travel, if we’ve agreed this is the best way to get to treatment or rehabilitation
• Travel to work if we are helping you with training or a new type of job
• Getting your children to school if they rely on you for care
• Driver licence retraining, if your doctor says you need to re-sit or change this because of your injury
• Changes to your vehicle if you can’t use it because or your injury
• Emergency travel, like an ambulance, if you receive an invoice for this and it relates to an injury we cover

Travel by your friends and whānau

Prior approval is needed before we can pay towards travel expenses for your friends and whānau.

We can pay towards travel expenses for friends and whānau if they attend treatment or rehabilitation with you for any of these reasons:

• you, as the injured person are 18 years or younger
• your medical condition requires someone to travel with you
• the travel services provider requires someone to travel with you to your treatment or rehabilitation

If you travel in a car together, we pay costs for one person - either yourself or your friends and whānau.

We can pay towards travel expenses for friends and whānau if they visit you while you're receiving rehabilitation for any of these reasons:

• you, as the injured person are 18 years or younger
• your friends and whānau have to make a single journey that is more than 80km in one direction, for example, they drive from Hamilton to Auckland, which is 121km
• you, as the injured person, are receiving in-patient rehabilitation or residential rehabilitation

Depending on what transport your friends and whānau use, they will need to meet the travel criteria. Talk with your recovery team about the criteria and prior approval.