Does EMT experience correlate to EMT-P salary?

[NYMedic828]

I don't think EMS is a dying industry, but it will change.

FDNY EMS made roughly $200,000,000 last year. It cost $400,000,000 to run the service.

All because 90% of our patients don't pay the bill. That weight further carries on to the hospitals which loose massively more than EMS did. Talking billions.

When, not if, the healthcare reform hits, it will hit the bottom of the food chain hard. We are the bottom.

Anyone who honestly thinks we can go on losing hundreds of billions a year in healthcare spending for much longer is delusional.

 

[DrParasite]

FDNY EMS made roughly $200,000,000 last year. It cost $400,000,000 to run the service.

which is why having EMS be a tax payer funded industry is the only logical way EMS can continue to operate successfully. but that's another story.

In every EMS job I have had, save for one, everyone started off as entry level. experienced helped you get the job, but you still started out at the bottom. if you had more than 10 years on you might get maybe a dollar more, but more often than not, you started at the bottom, because if you didn't accept the job, the next guy in line would.

Now, $18 an hour for entry level is a little better than $9 an hour, so you got to look around to see who will offer you the best deal.

Even better, we had a couple guys who were EMTs and paramedics for 5 years at the agency they became medics at... often they took a pay cut because their payscale was reset to entry level when they went from a 5 year experienced EMT to paramedic to a brand new paramedic or supervisor. I'm just happy I got a raise period. annual COLA raises would be even awesomer, but I am not going to hold my breath.

 

[RocketMedic]

FDNY EMS made roughly $200,000,000 last year. It cost $400,000,000 to run the service.

All because 90% of our patients don't pay the bill. That weight further carries on to the hospitals which loose massively more than EMS did. Talking billions.

When, not if, the healthcare reform hits, it will hit the bottom of the food chain hard. We are the bottom.

Anyone who honestly thinks we can go on losing hundreds of billions a year in healthcare spending for much longer is delusional.

That being said, there's plenty of profitable companies and even municipalities. It's not all doom and gloom, and I don't see Americans easily giving up convenient, rapid ambulance service.

 

[Tigger]

That being said, there's plenty of profitable companies and even municipalities. It's not all doom and gloom, and I don't see Americans easily giving up convenient, rapid ambulance service.

Suburbia may be profitable, but you don't get enough reimbursement to cover call volume in cities. In the sticks there is reimbursement but it is not enough to cover the cost of service.

I would bet that on a national level that EMS is a money loser. Tax based funding is the solution in my opinion.

 

[NYMedic828]

The most profitable agencies do IFT.

Patients who require IFT often pay the bill or have insurance that does in my experience...

Otherwise companies would refuse them IFT service. We can't refuse to pick up a 911 call.

 

[Frozennoodle]

This is why I don't buy the health care reform is going to bankrupt us all talk. We're going to see an increase in reimbursement; if only for an increase in volume of payments.

 

[NYMedic828]

This is why I don't buy the health care reform is going to bankrupt us all talk. We're going to see an increase in reimbursement; if only for an increase in volume of payments.

Where do you see an increase when we consistently lose massive amounts more than the year before?

You only receive larger volumes of payments when the people actually pay. Which is less than 50% of the time.