Insult To Injury: Ambulance Costs Can Cut Deep

cbs2 ^ | Feb 23, 2010 10:40 am US/Pacific

[Touch Not the Cat]

Every 911 call begins with a question.

Dispatcher: "Do you need the police or the paramedics?"

But if you dial 911 with a medical emergency and call for an ambulance, the bill is coming to you.

And it doesn't matter whether it's city, county or private ambulances that come to your door -- you're still going to get a bill.

"Base, ambulance ride: $685.25. 55; miles: $1,540, a total amount of $2,225.25.," Myleen Chepin, a bill recipient, said.

Chepin of Simi Valley is facing more than $13,000 in ambulance bills.

"My husband was having an attack, so we called 911. The insurance pays their portion and we ended up having a big amount to pay on top of it," Chepin said.

And that was just the beginning. Months later, Mylen's 18-year-old daughter had a severe allergic reaction to some prescription medications, resulting in another ambulance call.

Her daughter Kelly was in such bad shape she had to be transferred from the nearest hospital to UCLA, some 55 miles away.

"Well you can't drive them there yourself once they are in the hospital. The paramedics have to take them from place-to-place. And for going 55 miles, we got charged $2,200," Chepin said.

The Chepins filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and they are not alone. We found complaints filed from all over Southern California, disputing bills that range from the hundreds to the thousands.

"I've seen bills for either five or ten miles range easily into thousands of dollars," Jerry Flanagan, of ConsumerWatchdog.org, said.

At ConsumerWatchdog.org, Flanagan keeps an eye on the health care industry.

"When you call 911, we think that we are talking to the public protector. The public sector, not the private sector that is looking to make a buck off unnecessary service," Flanagan said.

[Kozak]

On the other hand the Medicaid type’s use it as their personal cab. I’ve had people come to the ER by ambulance with such complaints as “Nausea” ( not even vomiting, just nausea) “don’t feel good”, and my favorite “ torn fingernail”. And of course they don’t pay their bills.

[Graybeard58]

I know of an instance about 10 years ago when a mother and a two year old were in an accident and the toddler was injured but the mother was not. Yep, you guessed it, the mother was charged as well as the child because mom rode in the ambulance with her daughter.