Reimbursement for ambulance services has been on the decline for the past 22-years. Medicare and Medicaid pay well below actual costs and the private payers follow their lead. All of this is made worse by Obamacare.
The additional paperwork is the result of the OIG’s anti-fraud initiatives directed primarily to non-emergency ambulance providers, and involve a prior approval process that makes revenue recovery very difficult, if not impossible. Medicare and Medicaid routinely deny claims, which put them into the catacombs of the appeals process which can take years to resolve.
There are many ambulance services shuttering their doors for the reasons above, and many more will follow as more onerous hurdles are constructed and bureaucratic meddling intensifies.
Thank you for your excellent response.
Locally a political hack got a contract with the VA to transport patients. He botched the business.
He then ran for state representative and won. He lasted one term.
This year he ran for State Senate and got blown away.