I learned something the other day about Medicare and coverage for ambulance transfer. Did you know that Medicare will pay for medically necessary ambulance transfer from the hospital to a skilled nursing facility, but they'll only pay for the first twenty miles. At least that's what I was told.
I recently tried to transfer a patient to a nursing home, I mean a skilled nursing facility, but was told the family could not afford an ambulance transfer for their mother's broken hip because the facility was was more than 20 miles away and any mileage past 20 miles would be paid for out of pocket. So they dumped her into the back of an SUV and off they went.
I haven't really come across this before. Has anyone experienced this 20 mile CMS ambulance limitation before?
