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Ambulance Companies

Private ambulance companies, as opposed to emergency medical units dispensed by various cities in response to 9-1-1 calls, are frequently used to transport individuals who may need medical attention during the transport. Someone who needs to be transported while lying down on a gurney would usually be moved by an ambulance. Example of private ambulance use would include the transport of an ill patient from a skilled care facility (like a nursing home) to the hospital, or from a hospital back to a skilled care facility, under non-emergency conditions. Patients may also be moved from one hospital to another via private ambulance. Intravenous lines (I.V.'s) or oxygen can be maintained for the patient during transport and the patient's medical condition will be monitored during the journey. Read More

Medicare or the patient's other medical insurance may pay for the transport if the insurer finds that transport by ambulance was medically necessary. Insurance coverage for many of these transports is denied and the patient will be responsible for the cost of the transport, which may be several hundred dollars. As a general rule of thumb, Medicare (and Medicare supplements) will only pay for an ambulance, even under what the patient or family may have considered emergency conditions, if the patient could not have been transported to the care facility by private car. It does not matter to Medicare that there was no car or driver available. The use of oxygen or I.V.'s, monitoring equipment or the administration of medications during transport makes it likely that Medicare or the insurer will find ambulance transport medically necessary. Medicare and other insurers will also typically cover emergency ambulance transport only to the nearest emergency room, not necessarily the facility of the patient's choice.

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