Up until about 5 years ago the hospitals billed the Canadian government for the snow birds in Texas. Canada put a stop to this and now when one of their citizens have an emergency here in the states, Canada is notified and they send one of their air ambulances to transport the patient back to Canada for further treatment.
This is what I wrote our Texas senators about. Neither one would answer me.
Hey, if you can show me how I can get paid for taking care of illegals and homeless folks, I'd gladly share some of that money with you. Unlike hospital based physicians (ER docs, radiologists, anesthesiologists, pathologists, etc..) who gets subsidized fundings from the hospital they work at when their billing collections fall below breaking point, us independent grunts do not. We call it charitable work. We take unattached ER calls because we are not afraid of plaintiff attorneys. We take unattached ER calls because it is always a privilege to care for the sick, and because it is the right thing to do. Not all of us are in it for the money. Sure we make a decent living, and I'm not one to complain on how much I make. The reality of the situation is that in my practice, my reimbursement rate is ~40%. Imagine a business where only 4 out of 10 customers will pay you for your service/products.