Patient Transport Regulations

Transporting patients to and from hospitals is covered by a variety of rules and guidelines, including Medicare rules and state laws. The various sets of guidelines include when Medicare and Medicaid will pay for transportation, rules against providing free transportation and minimum standards for EMT transportation personnel and equipment.

Medicare Regulations

• Under Medicare, the federal program that provides medical care to people over 65, emergency ambulance care is covered if the patient is in critical condition, speed is essential and there's no other way to transport the patient safely. Medicare will also cover air-ambulance service if ground transportation isn't fast enough. The program will pay for non-emergency transportation if you need treatment or diagnosis and any other form of transportation would pose a health risk.

Medicaid Regulations

• The federal Medicaid program, which provides medical care to the needy, mandates that state Medicaid programs provide transportation to those who need it. Because Medicaid is the provider of last resort, according to healthconsumer.org, individuals must exhaust the use of free services, such as friends and relatives, before Medicaid kicks in.

State Regulations

• States have a variety of regulations on patient transport. Florida's "anti-kickback" regulations, for instance, ban health-care providers from using free transportation to attract customers to their business, according to healthlaw-blog.com. California rules for air-ambulance services cover the minimum qualifications of the staff and the equipment that the planes or helicopters must have on board. State regulations should be available on individual state websites.