cross country medicare transport

Medicare will not cover long distance non-emergency medical transport. They view this type of move as a move of convenience. Even though it is imperative that your brother be close to you…the only family who can care for him, Medicare sees that you are bypassing hundreds of “appropriate facilities” along the way and considers your move as a “move of convenience”, not an emergency. In addition to that, if a patient can safely travel by any other means than an emergency ambulance, Medicare does not view the transport as a medically necessary emergency transfer. Hiring an ambulance to make the transfer will not result in Medicare considering the transport unless something is being performed in the back of that ambulance that could not be performed in a lesser equipped vehicle. If a patient is transported in an emergency ambulance for a justifiable reason, the ambulance must tranport to the closest appropriate medical facility for Medicare to consider reimbursement.