Proton therapy funding in Alberta

If you live in Alberta, the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP) may pay for proton therapy outside Canada. The treatment must be medically necessary and not available in Canada. This page explains how that works. The plan, not this site, decides your case.

Your plan at a glance

• Plan: Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP).
• Who decides: the Out-of-Country Health Services Committee.
• Who applies: an Alberta physician, with clinical documentation. You cannot apply for yourself.
• Form: Alberta form AHC2176, the Out-of-Country Health Services application.
• Approval before travel: required. If you get treatment abroad before the committee decides, you are responsible for the cost of any care that is not approved.

How out-of-country funding works in Alberta

Alberta funds insured services abroad that are not available in Canada. This applies once the appropriate options in Canada have been used. The service must be medically necessary and the standard of practice in Alberta. It must be publicly funded, and not experimental or part of a clinical trial.

The application is reviewed by the Out-of-Country Health Services Committee. The funding is for the medical service. Receipts for travel-type expenses are not accepted as part of the application. This reflects that travel and similar costs are not the subject of this funding. The exact wording of any travel exclusion is not published in full, so confirm the detail directly if it matters to you.

Step by step

1. Speak with your specialist about whether proton therapy may suit your case.
2. Your physician completes and submits form AHC2176 before any treatment is booked.
3. The Chair screens the application, and complete files go to the committee. The committee decides within 60 business days, and a written decision is issued within 20 business days.
4. If approved, arrange treatment at the approved centre with your team.
5. If declined, note the appeal deadline below and act within it.

Important: who decides

The Out-of-Country Health Services Committee decides whether your treatment abroad is funded. Do not book or start treatment before you have written approval, or you may have to pay the full cost yourself.

If you are declined

If you are declined, you can appeal to the Out-of-Country Health Services Appeal Panel within 60 business days of the committee’s decision. The Panel’s decisions are final. Approval on appeal is very rare, however. The effort is better spent on a complete, well-documented first application prepared with your physician.

Proton therapy referral in Alberta

Alberta is one of the few provinces with its own published referral guideline for proton therapy. Under the Alberta Health Services guideline, referral is recommended for patients treated with curative intent. They should have an expectation of long-term survival and be able and willing to travel abroad. Every application is reviewed by a multidisciplinary team before a decision. As part of approval, your physician is asked for an assessment comparing a proton plan with a standard radiation plan for your case. Treating teams in Canada prepare this comparison. For approved patients, Alberta pays for the treatment and the patient’s flights. It also pays for a parent’s flights where the patient is a child. Accommodation and daily living costs rest with the family. A published patient study found the stay in the United States typically runs eight to nine weeks. Patients needing re-irradiation, or whose disease has progressed, are not excluded from consideration; the committee decides each case.

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

• Out-of-country funding in Canada
• Funding in your province or territory
• About us and how we work

Sources for this page (7)▸

1. AHCIP out-of-country funding, eligibility, committee timelines, and appeal panel: Government of Alberta. alberta.ca ; alberta.ca (checked 2026-07-06)
2. Form AHC2176 and application process: Government of Alberta. alberta.ca (checked 2026-07-06)
3. Proton comparative-plan requirement (clinical): Alberta Health Services guideline RT002, “Proton Beam Radiation Therapy,” October 2023. albertahealthservices.ca (checked 2026-07-06)
4. Alberta’s published proton referral guideline, curative-intent and long-term-survival eligibility, and that re-irradiation and progression are not automatic exclusions: Patel et al., Recommendations for the Referral of Patients for Proton-Beam Therapy, an Alberta Health Services Report, Current Oncology, 2014, PMID 25302033. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (checked 2026-07-15)
5. Alberta pays the treatment and flights, families cover accommodation, and the stay in the United States runs about eight to nine weeks (a mean of 59 days away): BMC Health Services Research, 2021, PMID 34246276. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (checked 2026-07-15)
6. Alberta as one of the active provincial proton referral programs: Tsang et al., Proton Therapy in Canada, Red Journal, 2022, S0360-3016(22)03642-2. redjournal.org (checked 2026-07-06)
7. Note: Alberta’s exact statutory citation for out-of-country funding and the full wording of any travel exclusion were not confirmed from a single government page. Verify directly at alberta.ca

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Every statement on this page is drawn from the sources listed below. Last updated: 15 July 2026.

This page is for general education only. It is not medical advice and it is not a decision about your care or your funding. Only your treating physician can advise you on treatment. Only your provincial or territorial health plan can decide whether it will fund treatment outside the country. protontherapy.ca is an information resource by Maple Med Global (MMG Medical Tourism Inc.), Toronto, Canada. We are not a hospital, a clinic, or a government body, and we do not provide medical care.