Emergency Transport

If you believe your life or health is in danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room (ER) right away. During a medical emergency, Veterans should immediately seek medical care. A medical emergency is an injury, illness, or symptom so severe that without immediate treatment, you believe your life or health is in danger.

Veterans do not need to check with VA before calling for an ambulance or going to an ER. However, promptly notifying the nearest VA medical facility of the emergency care and transportation is very important for VA to be able to potentially reimburse costs.

When the nearest VA medical facility is notified of the emergency transportation, more information will be known about the Veteran's medical condition, the availability of VA for transfer (if the Veteran is stable), and other information to assist them in receiving the necessary medical care.

VA Payments for Emergency Transportation

VA can pay for emergency transportation provided by a community provider for a Veteran's service-connected condition and nonservice-connected condition, but there are specific requirements that must be met before VA can reimburse these costs.

1. Prior Authorization and/or Prompt Notification. VA must authorize transportation in advance, but in medical emergencies, this may not be reasonable. As a result, promptly notifying the nearest VA medical facility of emergency transportation can satisfy the prior authorization requirement. VA may be able to consider prompt notification of ambulance transportation, subject to the following three requirements:
   1. Veteran (or someone on their behalf) notifies VA within 72 hours; and
   2. A VA or other Federal facility was not reasonably available to the Veteran; and
   3. The care the Veteran received was for a medical emergency related to a service-connected condition.
2. Emergency Transportation for nonservice-connected conditions. Along with the requirements above in 1(a) and 1(b), VA can pay for emergency transportation for a Veteran's nonservice-connected condition, subject to the additional following requirements (1-3):
   1. VA must receive and adjudicate a claim for the emergency care received as part of the emergency transportation (the administrative eligibility for payment of nonservice-connected emergency care can be reviewed here). If no claim is received for the associated treatment, VA cannot pay for the emergency transportation unless the following two exceptions are met:
      • Other health insurance or a third party paid for the emergency treatment (leaving no liability for the treatment) excluding the emergency transportation itself; or
      • The death occurred during transportation to receive emergency care.
      • If VA cannot pay for emergency care outside of the above two exceptions, then it generally cannot pay for the associated emergency transportation.
   2. Veterans must be liable to the provider of emergency transportation; and
   3. If the emergency condition was caused by an accident or work-related injury, the Veteran must first attempt to obtain reimbursement from a liable third party (i.e. employer, insurance, etc). If the Veteran's efforts to obtain reimbursement from a liable third party are denied or otherwise unsuccessful, VA may be able to pay for the emergency transportation costs.

More information on emergency ambulances is available in Fact Sheet_20-05 and Fact Sheet_20-06. Fact sheet 20-06 notes that veterans must have received VA medical care within the past 24 months

Unless the above requirements are met, VA in general cannot pay for emergency transportation for a Veteran's nonservice-connected condition.