"Home-to-hospital" travel expenses: are they reimbursed ?

You are looking for a way to get to a health care facility or to take exams ? You will soon go back home after a hospitalization but you cannot move alone ? Know that the Health Insurance reimburses your medical travel expenses if you respect certain conditions and if your health condition requires it.

When are transportation costs reimbursed? 

Transportation costs between your home and the hospital may be reimbursed if your doctor deems that your state of health or autonomy requires an "emergency transport" medical transportation and that you have a medical prescription. This may concern transportation related to the following situations:

• Hospitalization: complete, partial or ambulatory, and regardless of the duration of hospitalization (entry and/or exit);
• transport requiring you to be lying down and/or under surveillance;
• transport requiring sitting and/or supervision (risk of side effects after surgery or medical intervention or in case of pregnancy for example);
• summons to a regulatory and/or medical check-up;
• Long-term illness (ALD) requiring care, treatment and examinations if the patient suffers from an inability or deficiency to move;
• long-distance transportation (one-way trip of more than 150 km);
• Serial transportation (at least 4 one-way trips of more than 50 km for the same treatment during a 2-month period);
• transport to a CAMSP (Centre d'Action Médico-Sociale Précoce) or CMPP (Centre Médico-Psycho-Pédagogique);
• in case of an accident at work or professional illness requiring treatment or examinations.

What are the conditions to respect ?

To be reimbursed of your transport costs, you must respect certain conditions:

• to have the medical prescription of your doctor;
• be able to present proof of travel (summons, appointment, etc.).) ;
• your "carte vitale" must be up to date;
• ask for the invoice of your journey if you were transported by a cab for example.

You will not be able to choose or change your prescribed medical transportation, only your doctor can do so. Depending on your state of health and your autonomy, he or she may prescribe transportation by: personal vehicle (you may be accompanied by a third party); public transportation; TAP (You will be reimbursed for the cost of your medical transportation, either by cab or by ambulance.

In the case of medical transportation for a patient under 16 years of age, or for a patient who must be accompanied, the doctor must specify this on the prescription so that the accompanying person can also be reimbursed (form on the Ameli website).

Please note that in some cases, you will need to request prior agreement in order to be reimbursed: long-distance transportation; by airplane or boat; care and treatment of children and adolescents in CAMSP or CMPP, or requiring the presence of a third party; ALD.

Who reimburses the costs of medical transportation ?

Transportation costs are reimbursed up to 65% by the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie (CPAM), or even 100% in certain cases. Reimbursement is based on the means of transportation used:

• personal vehicle: according to the kilometric rate in force, i.e. 0.30€/km to which are added possible expenses such as tolls or parking lots;
• public transportation: according to the current price of a ticket (subway, bus, RER, etc.).), a 2nd class ticket for the train, the lowest ticket for the plane and the boat;
• TAP (cab or light medical vehicle) or ambulance: according to the conventional rates with presentation of the invoice issued by the carrier or the approved cab company.

You can benefit from third-party payment or the waiver of advance payment in the case of a TAP. In this case, the carrier or its company will be paid directly by the CPAM. However, you will have to sign an attestation certifying that the transportation has been carried out.

A medical deductible is also applied on the TAPs up to 2€ per transport (one way). This deductible is deducted from the reimbursements received by the CPAM. It is capped at 4€ per day (i.e. 1 round trip), which means that the Health Insurance cannot deduct more than 4€ per day from your reimbursements.