transporting two patients from different vehicles

[Aidey]

In my opinion, it would be best to use two different ambulances for transport. Patients are entitled to personal privacy. If it was me, if I am paying full price for the transport, you better dedicate that rig to me and only me. Our agency had a patient dispute their ambulance bill because the ambulance had two patients. Their argument was simple, why should I pay for the full cost of the transport if another patient was being transported as well. Shouldnt we both split the cost?... ever since, our agency does not allow two patients to transport together exception in the case of family members being transported.

Your agency is dumb.

Medicare has pretty clear rules on how multiple patient trips can be billed. Many insurance companies follow Medicare or have very similar rules because it is easy. Medicare allows for each patient to be billed for 75% of the trip and 1/2 the mileage if there are 2 patients. It is 60% if there are 3 patients.

 

[Meursault]

Usually, many in EMS like to say something is "against the law" when often there isn't even a written policy to cover that scenario.

....

Whenever someone tells you something is illegal, ask them why. Ask them to cite the law or policy. Usually, they can't.

SO MUCH TRUTH. It's not restricted to EMS, by the way; it seems to crop up wherever people have more responsibility than education.

 

[Shishkabob]

Is it legal to transport two pt's in one ambulance from different vehicles in a motor vehicle accident?

Yes.

 

[Craig Alan Evans]

There are a few of us out there with a gap in our knowledge base. If you couple this with inherent laziness they will at times quote nebulous laws, regulations, and procedures that simply do not exist in order to avoid work. Sad but true!

 

[abckidsmom]

Look up "incidental exposure". It's not a HIPAA issue. Probably not the best situation but, things happen.

You can tell who's worked in a rural system before.

Ain't that the truth. I loved working in a system when we could mark out on a scene and ask for 4 more units priority 1 without binding up the system for 3 hours, but those times have passed for me.

We had an MVA last week with 8 to transport, immobilized. By some miracle of dispatchers conjuring ambulances, we were done with getting people off the scene in 35 minutes. The 2 of the three staffed units were already out at the time of dispatch. Because of triage, it ended up that an adult and child from separate cars went in the first two ambulances, and that's just the way it was. These things just happen.

Fortunately, in rural areas where this kind of things happen, people are more accommodating of things like this.

 

[sir.shocksalot]

Look up "incidental exposure". It's not a HIPAA issue. Probably not the best situation but, things happen.

You can tell who's worked in a rural system before.

Heck you don't have to be rural to transport multiple patients from different vehicles. Any system that can afford to take multiple rigs OOS to handle a two car MVA must be very well staffed. Even in a busy city setting you might have 3 rigs within 10 minutes of you, but the only one not assigned on a call right now is out at the hospital 30 minutes away. Sometimes people get piled in an ambulance together because the alternative is sitting on scene for an hour or two to get another ambulance. I transported 3 people who were unrelated from an event once, none of the 3 people knew each other until they all got shoved in the ambulance, c'est la vie, if they wanted some privacy they should stay at home.

To answer the OP's question, no it is not illegal, if you could never know who was in the hospital there would be no such things as curtain dividers or hall beds in hospitals.

 

[mpena]

Your agency is dumb.

lol :glare:

 

[mhemt]

You can transport as many as you can fit.

 

[Tigger]

Look up "incidental exposure". It's not a HIPAA issue. Probably not the best situation but, things happen.

You can tell who's worked in a rural system before.

Yea, that's what I figured. I suppose given the choice I'd take being transported alone, but it would be pretty easy to justify such a decision.