1) You do not need a Physician Certification Statement when transporting an emergent medical condition.

2) You do need one when picking up a patient from the ED and returning the patient back to the facility where the patient was picked up. This is something that I have issues with, with all of the ambulance companies here in Miami. The ambulance crews never get this signed when they pick the patient up. Instead the ambulance company bills Medicare, then they get the denial and then they tell the patient that the mean doctor won't sign the form to get the claim denied. This is because we get the form 6-10 months after the patient was transported. Federal Law demands this form be signed within 48 hours of transport. So when we get the form 6-10 months later, we inform the ambulance company there is a $25 fee for signing this. This is because we have to send someone to the hospital, have the chart pulled so that the doctor can go back over the chart and then legally sign the document. But, the ambulance company refuses to pay, so we don't sign. I will not have my doctors sign something they don't remember from 10 months ago and go to jail if something is wrong on the forum.

I wrote to the ambulance company and told them that I watched their crews and they spend more time trying to make dates with the nurses than working on getting the paperwork done prior to leaving the hospital. I suggested that they take the form with them and get it signed before they leave the hospital, but NO, this is too easy to do.

So, this is one of your biggest headaches. I had the last laugh. I returned over 200 forms back to the ambulance company, with a letter to the CMS office, informing the ambulance company that the doctor has left the practice and moved out of state, so no one can sign their forms and it is their own fault for not having it signed when the doctor was there.