After nine months, Otago spending was $374,000 over budget and Southland $647,000.
By the end of the year, the board expects to have spent $4.1 million on claims made under the National Travel Assistance Scheme (NTA).
Board finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said there seemed to be increasing awareness of the scheme, which allows for patient and support person claims within certain criteria when they have specialised treatment away from home.
Also, there had been a criteria change about a year ago which increased the distances covered by the scheme.
Last year, the board spent $3.7 million and next year expects to spend around $4 million again.
Last year, the scheme cost $27 million nationally, the Ministry of Health said.
Rural district health boards, outside the five main centres, accounted for more than $17 million of that amount because they had to send more patients out of their regions for treatment.
Nationally, the reimbursements for kilometres travelled and accommodation were the largest claims.
Vehicle running costs totalled $6.5 million last year, while $8.5 million was spent on accommodation.
Mr Mackway-Jones said one of the difficulties in budgeting for NTA was that in many circumstances people were able to make their own bookings and then claim the subsidy back, which meant fares were not always the cheapest available.
While it appeared that the budgeted amount of $2.8 million for this year was low given previous spending, budget estimates for the coming year were done when only half the existing year's spending was known.
That did not always indicate accurately what spending might be over a full year.
Board chairman Errol Millar said the issue of spending on the scheme was raised from time to time at meetings of board chairmen, including whether there could be some way of providing concessions through arrangements with provincial airlines, given the volumes of travel involved.
Technically, he thought it should be possible and he understood that it was being explored further.
Mr Mackway-Jones said any system which controlled bookings could involve a huge amount of administration.
The Ministry of Health, which processes all claims for the scheme, advised that since 2007 it and the Ministry of Justice had a contract with Tandem Travel under which pre-paid flights, taxis and some accommodation for the boards was arranged.
There was no agreement in place with any one airline but Tandem Travel was able to look at all the options available at the time and book the cheapest.
Other claims involved people registered for the scheme seeking travel expenses already paid.
The increase in the southern amount was not unreasonable given the amount spent in previous years.
It was important to remember that the costs of the scheme increased with distance from the main centres.
"For Southland people, this could mean travelling not only to Dunedin but also to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland for some specialised care."
Travel assistance
Designed to help those who:
- Have to travel long distances to access specialist health or disability services outside their community.
- Incur high travel costs because of frequent visits to specialist health and disability services.
- Have significant financial need that might otherwise prevent them accessing necessary services.
- If national criteria are met, accommodation subsidy is up to $100 a night and the road travel rate is 28c/km.
- In some circumstances, a support person's costs may be subsidised.
- More information available from the Ministry of Health website.
