Man billed $673 for five-minute ambulance ride

MariaCatEMT

MariaCatEMT

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Patient disputes ambulance billing

ROCKFORD — As far as ambulance rides go, Ken Ward’s was anything but thrilling. No roaring helicopters, no screeching sirens, not even a saline drip.

Actually, he just went from a first-floor heart clinic on the west side of Ninth Street to SwedishAmerican Hospital, on the east side. The whole trip — about 500 feet — took less than five min-utes.


Read more here...
 
I actually read the whole article, and he won't be happy with the answers when he gets them. I totally understand his being upset, but if he went into cardiac arrest while crawling across the street he'd be pissed about that too...
 
Maybe he required a special ambulance?


Like a Bariatric unit... :ph34r:


when he had a heart attack at the Krispy Kreme he manages
 
I like the fact that he wants to be charged the same as the residents of the city, despite the fact the city residents pay taxes to support the ambulance/fire services (and he doesn't since he lives outside of city limits.). It's possible he's part of a district, in which case he would be paying the taxes, but the article didn't mention this.

I agree that he's not going to be happy with the answers he gets from the City Council.
 
TTLWHKR said:
Maybe he required a special ambulance?


Like a Bariatric unit... :ph34r:


when he had a heart attack at the Krispy Kreme he manages
Click to expand...
Bah Ha ha ha....



I used to work at Jefferson Hospital... That is 'about' what they charged for an ALS run.... if you needed a nurse, it cost another 300+ They would have to drive patients "around the block" - ended up being a 5+ block drive because of 1-way streets.... Patients would need to travel to or from the old "Wills Eye Hospital" (Now Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience" - I think they would bill insurance, probably for both legs of the round trip.
 
That's cheap. Around here, our rates are about $1200 for an ALS run and more for a CCT. There's no such thing as a BLS run in my county anymore (was a very poor decision by county EMS imo). Once in a while we have to do a transport from the ER bay to the MRI center (which is in the same hospital, only one parking lot over), and it's billed as a full ALS ride. This guy had it cheap :P
 
I'm curious, if an ALS intervention is not performed then how can you charge for an ALS run??
 
I'm not entirely sure. Something about an ALS assessment being done on every pt = ALS run. On that note, our county wants every pt to be put on the monitor and get an IV.
 
This is one of the arguments i've heard against "BLS'ing" a patient... if the medic assesses the patient, he's got to write the chart, not the EMT... because he did an ALS assessment and DETERMINED that ALS interverntions wern't nessicary.

As for the IV - How many times do you "BLS" a patient to the ED, and they get an IV and/or blood drawn shortly after their arrivial? Often. You should be able to start the IV and draw labwork (per ED and local protocol rules) and GET THE PATIENT'S CARE STARTED EARLIER.... This makes life better for all involved... Pt. gets treated faster, ED dosen't have to wait to draw blood to send labs, Medics get more sticks...

Jon
 
For our service, all paitents receive an "ALS Assessment." All this really means is, the Medic talked to them, found out their complaint and the history of it, and then determined it to be BLS. The EMT rides in the back, Medic drives. As a rule, the EMT should be writing the report. This is billed as a BLS call.

For our service, the "ALS Package" includes Monitor, IV, and O2. Not all patients get all 3. Some don't get the IV or O2, depending on Medics determination of necessity (for O2) and whether or not they can get the line. Some just get the monitor. In this guys case, since he would have had to have the monitor, he would be ALS. In which case our rate structure looks like this (we have a 1 mile minimum charge):

Base Rate for BLS or ALS $340.00 (+Mileage) Mileage$ 5.00 per mile
Base Rate for ALS II $480.00 (+Mileage) Mileage$ 5.00 per mile
Treatment/No Transport $ 60.00
Ambulance Standby $ 60.00 per hour
Non-profit Organization Standby $ 45.00 per hour
Quick Response Vehicle Standby $ 25.00 per hour

The difference between ALS and ALS II is whether or not they required the "ALS Package."
 
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