Ambulance Services
Medicare Part B (Medicare covers ground ambulance transportation when you need to be transported to a hospital, critical access hospital, or skilled nursing facility for medically necessary services and transportation in any other vehicle could endanger your health. Medicare may pay for emergency ambulance transportation in an airplane or helicopter to a hospital if you need immediate and rapid ambulance transportation that ground transportation cannot provide.
In some cases, Medicare may pay for limited, medically necessary, non-emergency ambulance transportation if you have a written order from your doctor stating that the ambulance transportation is medically necessary. For example, you may need medically necessary ambulance transportation to a dialysis facility if you have end-stage renal disease.
What Are My Costs?
You pay a coinsurance of 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, including the Part B deductible.
Important Notes
Medicare will only cover ambulance services to the nearest appropriate medical facility that is available to provide the care you need. The ambulance company must give you an "Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN)" when both apply:
- Received ambulance services in a non-emergency situation.
- The ambulance company believes that Medicare may not pay for your specific ambulance service.
