Claim for Reimbursement of the Cost of Renting a Vehicle

While serving aboard a ship, a civilian employee suffered a heart attack. He was removed from the ship and hospitalized at the Naval Hospital on Guam. When he was released, he was treated as an outpatient. The attending physician recommended the use of an air conditioned rent-a-car as part of his recuperation because of the hot climate, the patient's physical limitations, the unavailability of public transportation, the unreliability and expense of taxi service, and the need to travel back and forth to the hospital for checkups. The employee submitted a claim for reimbursement of the cost of renting the vehicle. The rental of the automobile was not authorized or approved as advantageous to the Government and could not be properly authorized because the employee was not engaged in official business. Therefore, the rental was not reimbursable as a travel or temporary duty expense. Although hospitalization and treatment of seamen employed on vessels are provided without charge by the Public Health Service according to law, nothing in the provisions of the law permits reimbursement of automobile rental charges even though such charges were incurred on the advice of the attending physician. Accordingly, reimbursement of the car rental fees and associated expenses could not be approved.