Before you find out the hard way how much of the ambulance fee your health insurance policy doesn't cover, it would be a real good idea to ask the customer care service staff at your company. Even when you see AMBULANCE SERVICE in the insurance policy you it doesn't always mean that much. Is your company going to pay SOME of the bill, MOST of the bill, or ALL of the bill? Will the policy pay off ambulance fees only for across town, leaving you with the residue -- or perhaps it is generous and will pay for up to fifty miles. Will the ambulance bill still be paid if some doctor on the original end says it was an emergency but the doctor at the hospital decides it was not a medical emergency?
Mr. Jones nodded that he understood. His gaze swung over to the two Emergency Transport Specialists who hovered anxiously nearby. He shuddered at the thought of the two or three hundred dollars they might charge for emergency transport to the next nearest hospital. Mr. Jones struggled for breath then said, "Okay. My wife will drive me." He gasped several times then added, "That will only cost me $20"
"I can't let you do that," the doctor responded. "Your tonsils are swollen to the bursting point, and beyond. If they burst on the way there is no way your wife can take care of you."
Mr. Jones grew angry, and shook his head. "I could never pay the ambulance bill back."
The doctor consulted with the wife and discovered the old man was covered by SSI. He called the SSI office and came back. "SSI will pay most of the Transport bill to the nearest hospital. That's Hot Springs."
The old man shook his head. When it came to money, he did not trust doctors very much. He did not trust the doctors here -- or the totally unknown doctors there, and as for the EMT he did not trust them at all. MOST of the bill might well leave far, far too much for him to ever repay. Again he shook his head. He glanced at his wife. "Take me home. I didn't want to come here in the first place."
"Would you rather die?" asked one of the MTs. |
He nodded immediately in response. |
"He might prefer going to the VA," said Mrs. Jones. "They don't charge him anything for treating him."
The doctor hurried off and came back ten minutes later. "The VA will pay for the ambulance all the way to Little Rock. NOW will you go."
Mr. Jones shook his head in sure knowledge. "The VA will only pay IF -- in THEIR opinion -- this is an emergency. My wife can drive me and it won't matter what they think."
It took another fifteen minutes to batter the old man down. Finally he scribbled his signature on the three page form and they hustled him into the ambulance. He was still muttering, "I'm not going to pay for this," when they strapped him into place.
After Mr. Jones returned home from his immediate surgery at the VA he was socked upside the head for $1,100 of the bill. Finding out the ambulance had cost at least that amount almost killed him. "My life isn't worth that much," he snapped at his wife.
They waited for the VA to pay the bill. It didn't.
The ambulance service dunned him for the same amount every month for five months. Finally Mr. and Mrs. Jones went to the VA and asked why the bill had not been paid. "It was not reported correctly," they were assured.
While they stood right there the VA called the ambulance company and asked to have the bill faxed to the VA. "I'm writing checks today. I'll be glad to write a check to you, today."
The Jones family went home feeling that all was well.
The problem was not resolved. The VA called the next morning. "I'm sorry to say we can't pay the ambulance bill for you."
"Why not?"
"Because the ambulance service has already charged SSI for fifteen hundred and twenty two dollars of the bill and the VA won't pay if some other entity has paid anything on the bill."
Mr. Jones put the phone down and turned to his wife. "They charged us twenty seven hundred for that little trip to Little Rock." He shook his head. "If they had just charged the VA then the VA would have paid every cent of the bill. But because they didn't make the bill out right I now have to pay eleven hundred dollars for THEIR mistake!"
A lot of people have the mistaken belief that LOCAL ambulance service is free. Just call 911 and the EMTs come rushing to save you. That isn't always so. And you need to know, before you go.
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Have you ever considered how much less your health insurance premiums would be if you left off the ambulance service?
Think about it again because we are not talking pennies here. It wasn't until he began telling friends about the exorbitant fee that Mr. Jones learned just how lightly he had gotten by. "I only went half that far and my ambulance bill was fifteen thousand dollars." Another friend had ended up with a bill well over five thousand dollars -- "and all they did was take me across town from one hospital to another."
So yes... We are talking big bucks here! Even when you see AMBULANCE SERVICE in the insurance policy you are being offered it doesn't mean that much. Dig deeper and make sure you see it in writing: Is the company going to pay SOME of the bill, MOST of the bill, or ALL of the bill? Will the policy pay off ambulance fees only for across town, leaving you with the residue -- or perhaps it is generous and will pay for up to fifty miles. Will the ambulance bill still be paid if some doctor on the original end says it was an emergency and the doctor on the other end decides it was not a medical emergency?
Then there is the question of shunting. If you come rushing up to the hospital in an ambulance the hospital can decide it does not want to treat you, or doesn't have room for you -- and you cannot get out of the ambulance and walk... No... The ambulance company cannot legally release you until it gets you CHECKED INTO a hospital. Until then it is responsible for keeping you alive. Therefore, especially in rural areas, you could find yourself shunted from hospital to hospital until the company finds a one willing to take on the responsibility of treating you. And, if you are one of those poor souls that doesn't have insurance? Oh BOY! You could have a real round robin going here.
On the other hand, if you WALK (or your friends carry you) into the hospital
it is legally obligated to try treating you.
These are permutations you need to consider
before you go dialing 911 to send an ambulance.
One more thing, waiting until you NEED ambulance service is too late to cut your bills down to manageable size. But by planning in advance you could save a lot of money. Many of your LOCAL ambulance services provide extremely low protection, and I'm talking about as little as $50 or $100 per year. But this is usually only for LOCAL service. That means that savings might only appear if there is good hospital care close to where you live. And another thing to consider before relying on local ambulance service for your protection... what if you have an accident in some OTHER town where the police hustle you into an ambulance as a matter of course? Then again, what if you must be flown to see a specialist who just happens to be two or three states away? That ambulance bill could reach catastrophic proportions in a matter of minutes.
Like Mr. Jones, when time is precious and your concentration is in short supply you may be forced into deciding how much a life in debt is worth to you.
the end.
Lin Stone is a professional writer, author, and photographer. Many of his stories are available for free reading by Clicking HERE.
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Your Medical Care can be more affordable, and more accessible. |
NOW is the time to share this information with every neighbor and form a neighborhood group that can help each other. Anarchy and riots could break out and law enforcement agencies may be operating sporadically if at all as we have witnessed in New Orleans.