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General conditions/Eligibility criteria: Concessions
Eligibility for concessions
Under the State Concession Scheme the Victorian Government provides Victorian pension and health care card holders free ambulance and non-emergency patient transport services (where authorised as medically necessary) to/from the nearest appropriate medical facility.
Individuals eligible for free transport include:
- Persons issued with a Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card
- Persons holding a current Health Care Card (excluding Cards with payment types CD and FO) and their dependents as listed on the Card (in circumstances where the dependant is the patient)
- Children holding a current Child Disability Health Care Card (payment type CD) or Foster Care Health Care Card (payment type FO), but not their guardians/families as listed on the Card.
Victorians eligible for concessions receive free ambulance coverage throughout Australia. This coverage will provide free emergency and medically authorised non emergency ambulance transport to the nearest and most appropriate hospital. Repatriation back to Victoria is not free unless it is authorised as medically necessary and where there is a demonstrated medical requirement for ambulance transport.
Please note that concession benefits do not apply:
- Where a patient requests to be repatriated or relocated to/from Victoria for their convenience or social reasons
- Where a patient is eligible for another entitlement, for example, holds a DVA Gold or White Card
- Where another party is responsible for the account, eg. TAC or Workcover
- Where a patient is being transferred to a private hospital for on-going care and/or as part of a pre existing arrangement between the transferring hospital and the private hospital and/or the transfer has been organised by Adult Retrieval Victoria (ARV). ARV transfers to private hospitals are predominately in respect to ICU / Coronary Care beds
Evidence of concession entitlements
In order to access entitlements through the State Concession Scheme, the Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card number must be provided at the time of transport or when an invoice is received. Failure to do so will result in the account remaining the responsibility of the relevant individual, hospital or chargeable authority as detailed in these guidelines.
