Selling EMS memberships?

[rails]

Hey all,

Does your service sell EMS memberships, where people in the community can choose to pay an annual fee in exchange for a reduced/eliminated bill if they later use EMS?

If so, how does your service best sell these memberships? Do any particular places (such as nursing homes) work well for selling them?

 

[TransportJockey]

We do... but it only applies to our flight branch. And it is marketed towards anyone who wants to buy one. Most flight programs have something like that (PHI, Tristate, AeroCare to name a few)

 

[rails]

TransportJockey, have any particular venues been best for y'all to sell those memberships?

 

[Handsome Robb]

We have a ground and flight membership.

I purposely avoid knowing anything about billing and those programs so I can honestly say I don't know when people ask me about them. I do know a phone number for them to call though...hah

In my experience it seems like mostly the elderly population is the customer base, obviously, but I haven't run into many patients coming out if nursing or assisted living facilities with memberships listed on their face sheet or them telling me they have one.

I have a membership to our flight program, partially because it was really discounted, or free I can't remember, and my hobbies have the fun risk of needing EMS in the middle of nowhere.

 

[TransportJockey]

TransportJockey, have any particular venues been best for y'all to sell those memberships?

Its just started but open houses and anything my ground units or the flight teams do public relations at events seem to work well.

 

[DrParasite]

not my employer, but http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/...fers-subscription-program-?instance=more_page

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

My old service does www.tcls.org

 

[chaz90]

My service doesn't charge, but several of the local BLS transporting agencies offer subscriptions.

 

[vcuemt]

http://www.chesterfield.gov/EMSPassport/

They do! I think it's a fantastic idea, tantamount to insurance. Probably a little riskier than insurance for the county, but money in the pocket is money in the pocket.

It's a program where you pay a subscription fee ($30 for individuals and $60 for families) and whatever insurance doesn't cover the county writes off.

 

[avdrummerboy]

Our service does for any transport (we're ground only, MercyAir/ Air Methods does their own) We're a private non profit and our is something like 50 for individual and 100 for family and if they have insurance they don't pay anything and if they don't have insurance, they pay half their bill. Not sure how much extra revenue it's bringing in (though our company is doing good with around 31-32% return)

 

[Jon]

In PA, several of the services I work for do have membership programs.

They usually sell them by direct mail to all residences within their territory. Some of the agencies also have mutual aid agreements, where a mutual aid ambulance agrees to honor the local membership if they are covering in that town... Done reciprocally, to keep everyone happy.