My mother is currently in a nursing home 500+ miles from where I (only child) lives and I'd like to move her into a nursing home here. I just found out there's medical transport services from state to state. Wondering about cost; is an ambulance used, etc. She has dementia but, other than having a toe amputated a week ago (infection that got into the bone), at 81 y/o she's physically healthy.
1) Her health insurance had to be changed because it did not cover the new region. And in order for me to get info on that, we needed permission forms signed so the insurance people could talk to me. Also needed HIPPA forms for the old doctor's office (they needed a signed HIPPA form in order for me to request copies of medical records to bring along for the new doctor).
2) I did not realize her driving license was about to expire (from her old state). She wasn't driving, but a license functions as your ID card. So it expired shortly after getting to the new state. Problems at new bank opening a local account, because they require ID. And problems at new clinic, because their policy was to verify ID at every check-in. Somewhere else also needed a current ID (can't remember who it was). And so you have to bring an elderly person to the long lines at the Dept of Licensing for a new state ID card. If I had to do it over, I would check the date on her license and renew it before departing (the difficulty was that it was both out-of-state AND expired over a certain number of months).
I did consider medical transportation - specifically MedLink. But because I had to move her cat, as well, I ended up renting a minivan and driving her myself. I did hire her caregiver from California. Total cost, including the caregiver pay (and her flight home) and hotels was about 6K. I could have flown her to Ohio, but her sundowning was out of control at the time, the cat was too fat to fit under even a first class seat, Delta wouldn't let me buy a seat for the cat, and the best flight was a non-stop redeye when she just didn't do nighttime well. That, and the moving truck needed to get ahead of us so that my spouse could set up her memory care apartment before we arrived (it arrived 16 hours before we did).
Medlink would have been about 10K, which was the rough estimate they gave me in September 2018 - I didn't pursue an exact quote due to our decision to drive. They were going to use a specialty Mercedes van, which had a bed built in for her (and another one for the drivers/caregiver) They were going to drive straight through with rest/food stops - there would be two drivers, and a caregiver. The cost would be determine on the distance, the care needed, the vehicle determined to be the best option (again, dependent on the medical needs and distance). They had all sorts of equipment (DVD players, etc.) to help keep the person being transported entertained.
Since your distance is far shorter than my trip, I'm sure the costs would be far less. I'm guessing you wouldn't need much more than I did - a caregiver or perhaps an LPN or EMT depending on the state of her toe by that time. Perhaps their regular van would be sufficient, as opposed to the van I would have needed.
The reviews for MedLink were great, and if I hadn't had the cat issue, I would have gone further in the quote process. We lived, it went well enough, but it was very stressful, especially if the sundowning started before the end of the day's driving (we kept it to 6 hours a day, but it seemed like the sundowner's moved up an hour every day I drove!).
Best wishes as you investigate your options!
If she is on Medicaid I do not think it crosses state lines.
Having given these warnings, it should be mentioned that while this process of transferring Medicaid coverage is difficult, it is not impossible. In addition, there is good news. Even though each state has different eligibility requirements for Medicaid, usually their income and assets limits are very similar. Most people who are financially eligible in one state can generally qualify in their new state with little to no re-structuring of their finances. More good news is that the Medicaid application review and approval process is fairly quick. Depending on the state, it will usually take between 15 - 90 days to receive a letter of approval. Also, states are prohibited by federal law from having a length of residency requirement; this means one can be eligible immediately upon moving to their new state (or becoming a resident of the new state).
https://www.payingforseniorcare.com/medicaid/state-transfer-rules.html
https://www.medicaidplanningassistance.org/transferring-medicaid/