Chicago Association for Research and Education in Science
TRAVEL POLICY

General Policy
CARES’ mission is to enhance the health care of U.S. Veterans through the support and promotion of research and education. Travel is an integral component of the research and education enterprise. Accordingly, within certain parameters, funds administered by CARES may be used to reimburse travel expenses associated with furthering research or education activities for faculty, staff, patients and patient’s family members.

Acceptable Travel
Travel to meetings of clinical specialty organizations, research societies, national and international general clinical groups (e.g., AMA, WHO), the recognized or stated primary goals of which are to further medical knowledge, research, public health and/or education is acceptable when the proposed travel has a demonstrable research or education relevance.

Approval Authority
Approval of travel reimbursements is the responsibility of the Executive Director (or designee), with final authority residing with the Board of Directors.

Relevance of Travel
It is the responsibility of the traveler to submit adequate material to justify a primary research or education purpose.

Advances
Generally, travel expenses must be paid by the traveler and will be reimbursed upon completion of the approved travel. Travel advances may be made only under unusual circumstances, and in no case will more than 75% of the estimated cost of the trip be advanced.

Traveler’s Responsibility for Excess Expenses
The traveler is responsible for excess costs and any additional expenses incurred for personal preference or convenience; e.g. cost of accommodations in excess of the conference schedule, luxury hotel accommodations, first class air travel or services unnecessary or unjustified in the performance of official business.

Reimbursement Documentation and Time Limits
Reimbursement will be issued only upon submission of original receipts and documentation.

Reimbursements for completed travel should be requested within 60 days. Requests submitted more than 60 days after the expense is incurred may be denied or may require additional justification and approval before reimbursement can be made.

Reimbursement Procedure for a CARES Employee
Submit the following items to the CARES Office.

1. Fully completed "CARES Request for Travel Reimbursement" form:
2. A copy of the meeting/conference announcement or letter of invitation if you are a presenter.
3. If you are receiving reimbursement from another source in addition to CARES, provide official documentation of the amount received from the alternative source.
4. Original receipts for expenditures in excess of $25. (You may choose to be reimbursed on a "per diem" basis in which case, receipts for meals and incidentals are not required.)

Reimbursement Procedure for a VA Employee
Submit the following to the CARES Office.

1. An approved "Request for Approval of Acceptance of Gifts or Donations" ( VA Form 10-0101B) or equivalent.
2. Fully completed "CARES Request for Travel Reimbursement" form:.
3. A copy of the meeting/conference announcement or letter of invitation if you are presenting.
4. If you are receiving reimbursement from another source in addition to reimbursement by CARES, official documentation of the amount received from the alternative source must be provided.
5. Original receipts for expenditures in excess of $25. (You may choose to be reimbursed on a "per diem" basis in which case, receipts for meals and incidentals are not required.)

Reasonableness of Travel Costs:
You will be reimbursed only for reasonable and customary business-related costs in accordance with the following:

1. Air travel should be coach class.
2. Memberships in airline flight clubs are not reimbursable.
3. The cost of personal flight insurance is not reimbursable.
4. When returning on a Sunday or departing on a Saturday in order to obtain a cost savings in airfare due to the Saturday-night stay over, travelers should provide a cost comparison (showing that the lower airfare plus extra night lodging is less costly than airfare without the Saturday night stay over).
5. The cost or value of upgrade certificates is not reimbursable.
6. You must identify and pay for personal flights, even when such flights are incorporated into a flight schedule that serves a business purpose (i.e. CARES).
7. Standard rooms only; the cost of suites or other upgraded rooms is not reimbursable.
8. Midsize or smaller rental cars only. (Be certain to include the estimated cost of rental car on the VA Form 10-0101B (or equivalent).
9. Reimbursement may be made for local telephone calls which are certified by the traveler to be business related. Calls made by the traveler to HVAH/NCVAMC for business purposes are reimbursable.
10. Personal long-distance calls while away on business are reimbursable up to $9/day, if kept to a minimum, such as one call daily to family.
11. Reasonable tips for baggage handling are reimbursable without receipts.
12. Cost of canceling and rebooking flights is not reimbursable, unless it can be shown that it was necessary or required for legitimate business reasons (such as changed meeting dates, etc.)
13. Persons traveling on CARES funds cannot use government rate airfares.
14. Taxi fares to restaurants while on travel status will not be paid.

Spouse/Partner Travel
It is the policy of CARES not to reimburse any employee or board member for separate travel costs (air fare, etc.) associated with his/her spouse or partner. However, the cost of a shared hotel room need not be allocated between employee/director and spouse/partner for purposes of this policy.

Away From Home:
Travel by an employee who will be away from home overnight is work time only during those periods that coincide with the employee’s regular working hours (e.g., 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.). Such time is counted as hours worked even if it occurs on a non-working day (e.g., Saturday or Sunday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.). Travel outside regular working hours as a passenger in a plane, train, boat, bus or automobile is not hours worked.

Example: Edgar’s employer operates on a Sunday through Saturday workweek and Edgar is regularly scheduled to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday with an hour off for lunch (usually from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.). One week, Edgar must travel on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EST) to go from Atlanta to San Francisco for a Monday meeting and then work his regularly scheduled 40 hours from Monday through Friday. He is entitled to 5 hours of overtime pay for the week because his travel time (minus one hour for his regular lunch break) must be added to his regular work hours for a total of 45 hours worked for the week.

If the employee uses his/her own car rather than available public transportation for travel away from home, the employer can count as hours worked the time spent driving or the time that would have been spent on public transportation during regular working hours. An employee riding with the driver would be entitled to pay only for those hours that fall during the passenger’s regular working hours (minus meal periods).

Use of Private Automobile:
Reimbursement will be at the prevailing federal rate (www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentId=9646&contentType=GSA_BASIC) plus applicable tolls and reasonable parking. Such reimbursement is for the expense of the automobile and mileage reimbursement and shall be made to only one person when two or more persons are traveling together in an automobile. In no case will reimbursement for use of a private automobile exceed roundtrip coach airfare to the destination. Distance will be calculated using commonly available internet map sites.

Under no circumstances should a traveler ever transport a patient or research subject by private automobile and CARES assumes no responsibility for loss through fire, theft, collision or otherwise to an employee’s vehicle or its contents. Employees are responsible for any parking, mechanical or moving violation citations received while using their own vehicles.