42 CFR § 424.122 - Conditions for payment for emergency inpatient hospital services.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t42/s424.122"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "42 CFR § 424.122 - Conditions for payment for emergency inpatient hospital services."
title_number: 42
title_name: "Public Health"
section_number: "424.122"
section_name: "Conditions for payment for emergency inpatient hospital services."
chapter_name: "CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES"
subchapter_number: "B"
subchapter_name: "MEDICARE PROGRAM"
part_number: "424"
part_name: "CONDITIONS FOR MEDICARE PAYMENT"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "42 U.S.C. 1302 and 1395hh."
regulatory_source: "53 FR 6634, Mar. 2, 1988, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "424"
---


# 424.122 Conditions for payment for emergency inpatient hospital services.

Medicare Part A pays for emergency inpatient hospital services furnished by a foreign hospital if the following conditions are met:

(a) At the time of the emergency that required the inpatient hospital services, the beneficiary was—

(1) In the United States; or

(2) In Canada traveling between Alaska and another State without unreasonable delay and by the most direct route.

(b) The foreign hospital was closer to, or more accessible from, the site of the emergency than the nearest United States hospital equipped to deal with, and available to treat, the individual's illness or injury.

(c) The conditions for payment for emergency services set forth in § 424.103 are met.

(d) The hospital is a hospital as defined in § 424.101, and is licensed, or approved as meeting the conditions for licensing, by the appropriate agency of the country in which it is located.

(e) The determination of whether the hospital was more accessible is made in accordance with § 424.106.