January 30, 2024
The new DTC Certificate Form T2201 is a huge win for all who have advocated for important improvements in the determination of eligibility to ensure fairness to Canadians with disabilities living with severe and prolonged physical and mental impairments.
Mental functions necessary for everyday life
The medical doctor (or nurse practitioner) now has the option of checking the following boxes, No limitations, Some limitations and Severe limitations.This is a marked departure from the previous Form T2201 introduced in 2022, allowing DTC eligibility only to those with a "very limited capacity" in any one of the 10 examples of mental functions on page 12. Also, a separate page has now been allocated for examples of a patient’s impairment if he/she only has “some limitations” rather than “severe limitations” which will be helpful in the determination of eligibility for the cumulative effects category if the patient has significant limitations in two of more categories.
Physical impairments
CRA has eliminated the Severity and Frequency scales as guidelines for the medical practitioners, relying on examples that describe a patient’s limitations in the following categories: speaking, hearing, walking, dressing, feeding and eliminating. CRA has also streamlined the questions relating to limitations. Vision
Medical practitioners are now able to list any medical condition or diagnoses that impairs their patient’s ability to see in addition to information related to the visual acuity of each eye. Life-sustaining therapy
The T2201 form now includes several examples of Life-sustaining therapy, such as: Multiple daily insulin injections, Insulin pump, Hemodialysis, Peritoneal dialysis, Intermittent oxygen therapy, 24-hour oxygen therapy, Tube feeding, and Chest physiotherapy. Medical conditions for the determination of eligibility include: Phenylketonuria (PKU), in addition to Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, End-stage renal disease, and Cystic fibrosis..
Supporting relative
CRA now allows for more than one person providing support for a family member to split the claim for the dependent.
TAGS - DTC, CRA
