Does Medicare cover a nurse to travel with a Dementia patient to another state?

Is the time pressure because the Ga NH is holding a place for him?

Do they have any links with specialist transport service providers, perhaps?

Googling "patient transfer from Chicago to Georgia" gets some promising results. Will it be doable for you even if Medicare won't cover it? You can get quotes online, and as these are medical transportation services there shouldn't be extra to pay.

Well. Let's guess he's been in rehab and is about to be discharged. So he goes from rehab to a permanent placement; and Kamy wants that to be near her; so I suppose she's got this one-time shot at getting Medicare to cover his transfer from rehab to facility, and then all she has to do is convince them that they can stretch the "medically necessary" and "nearest appropriate" rules to cover the facility she's got lined up in Ga.

Kamy rather than me sitting here like a lemon making silly guesses - ! - is your Dad in rehab? Are you working with his discharge team? Do you have somewhere for him to go?

CM, It just isn't clear the reason for the move. Isn't the care he needs available where he is?

Glad, I think Kamy means she's got to get him transferred stat, rather than that she's too busy to give it her attention, no?

Kamy, why are you moving him if you have little time to deal with this? Having him close to you will require more time and attention toward him much of the time. Is he doing fine in his current environment. Think long and hard before arranging this move which is bound to cause a sudden and rapid decline.

You could contact a Geriatric Care Manager to see if someone would accompany dad. Though Medicare would not cover the cost of that either. Any cost would be paid by your dad.

And as guest said check into how Medicare will work once he is there. Maybe an elder law attorney could advise.

Medicare does not pay to move patients closer to family members. If he’s on Advantage plan it may not cross state line. If time is limited as suggested hire CNA or family member but Medicare won’t pay plane tickets etc to get him closer to you.

This is from Medicare Interactive (https://www.medicareinteractive.org)

Air ambulance transportation

In limited cases, Medicare Part B covers transportation in an air ambulance. The service must be medically necessary, meaning that you require immediate and rapid ambulance transportation that could not be provided by a ground ambulance. More specifically, the service must be needed either because:
A ground ambulance cannot get to you where you are
Or, there is a great distance to travel or another obstacle involved in getting you to the nearest appropriate facility.

So it looks as if they're not totally opposed to the principle of assisting with transportation issues - though you'd have to do some pretty fast talking. If I were you I'd ring them up and ask for help.

To my knowledge, no. Medicare will not pay for a nurse to travel with your LO.
Maybe an idea is to offer to pay a friend to fly out to you and back with your dad.