Castle Hills to charge for 911 calls

[reaper]

I spent a week in light duty up at corporate. We send people to collections all the time.

And no, nobody pays taxes or otherwise to support EMS in my county. Its private company transport and we bill for services rendered.

Just because they are sent to collections does not meas that it will be collected.

You do pay taxes for 911 service. Look at your phone bill, everyone pays it! I will gladly pay a $55 fee, if they stop charging the taxes. I have never had to call 911 from my home, so I could save a ton of money!!

 

[VentMedic]

Just because they are sent to collections does not meas that it will be collected.

If you don't have insurance or it is a crappy insurance, one can be looking at a $2,000 ED bill and a minimum of $20,000 for a brief hospital stay. And then, there is worry about how to pay for a minimum of $200 dollars of meds. If you are living on an unemployment check as so many are now in this country, it is a struggle especially if you have any chronic disease. Even hypertension alone can be very expensive and difficult to manage in stressful situations. The unemployed who are trying to maintain their own insurance will face a monthly premium of $400 to $900 per month and that might be just for a single person. There is also the rent or house payment and the matter of putting food on the table for the family.

Just respiratory meds like one maintenance and one rescue inhaler may be well over $400 per month. Many of my COPD patients average $700 in just respiratory scripts. They still have to find money or struggle to get their insurance to pay for DM, cardiac and BP meds. Several of the new inhalers are not covered by some insurances. Often the noncompliance is not caused by the attitude of the patient but from the attitudes in big business and our government.

 

[medic417]

Medical bills unless you sign a contract of repayment are basically un collectable. You send to collections but you can't garnish wages, can't take their home, can't put it on their credit. Now after the emergency if they sign an agreement for repaying then that is a different story.

I realy like the idea so I am putting it to my city to help fund us.

 

[medic417]

You want your towns folk to rebel and not fund you at all, you go ahead with that plan, friend.

They won't rebel. The avg person doesn't call for EMS 1 time in 10 years at least probably longer. So this actually only affects abusers and chronic conditions. Perhaps if the call is found to be serious then the Paramedic could assign a waiver of the charge.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

They won't rebel. The avg person doesn't call for EMS 1 time in 10 years at least probably longer. So this actually only affects abusers and chronic conditions. Perhaps if the call is found to be serious then the Paramedic could assign a waiver of the charge.

Now there is an idea!