Neighbor just taken off by ambulance

[Koolau]

In our case an ambulance would take us to a less than desirable hospital. I’ve been taken there for severe back pain and never want to go there again. We have another hospital that is excellent, but a little further away. We will always try to make it ourselves and if necessary call an ambulance from the car. Maybe we’ll be close enough for them to take us there then.

That is interesting. I don't recall how we did it when DW had to ride to the hospital due to chest pains (which we were almost certain was A Fib - and it was.) I THINK we told them which hospital to take her to. ALL of our docs (including cardiologist) are associated with that hospital, so it would have made no sense to take her anywhere else. And, that it the ER we went to.

The REASON we took the ambulance was so that she would be quickly hooked up to an EKG which would FINALLY document what was going on with her heart. We'd never been able to "catch" it when it happened. By the time we got to her doc, it had converted on its own. So doc could only guess. THIS time, in the ambulance, the EKG did catch the A Fib even though DW had converted by the time she got to the ER. SO, that was a "good" ambulance utilization.

I simply never thought about the ambulance driver taking you someplace you didn't want to go.

I guess, YMMV.

 

[jollystomper]

We have a city program here where we pay $99 per year and it will cover all ambulance surcharges for 4 people in the household.

+1

our county's program is $50/year for a household, or $15/year per senior, whichever is less. Currently we pay $30/year. They submit the bill to the insurance company, whatever the insurance company pays they accept, no additional charges to us. Fortunately we have had use it only twice in the last 20 years, and it is worth it to us. It seems that for ER situations you can get so many bills for so many different entities, it is worth having this aspect dealt with in a simple manner.

 

[Koolau]

+1

our county's program is $50/year for a household, or $15/year per senior, whichever is less. Currently we pay $30/year. They submit the bill to the insurance company, whatever the insurance company pays they accept, no additional charges to us. Fortunately we have had use it only twice in the last 20 years, and it is worth it to us. It seems that for ER situations you can get so many bills for so many different entities, it is worth having this aspect dealt with in a simple manner.

Nice! Sounds like a good system.


Are the ambulances and personnel state-of-the-art? Good ambulance service saves lives.

 

[old medic]

$54,406? How much did the insurance pay and how much did you pay?

My out of pocket was $7500, and last I heard BCBS was settling it with them.

 

[badatmath]

I thought part of the reason they took you to the closest is to free up the ambulance for the next victim. They aren't going to drive me an hour to one I'd "like" when there are some 6 or 7 miles away.

Also I think your insurance can balk at paying if you have a long and winding road to get there. But in my case I am perhaps 7 miles from one and 8 from the other so didn't see to be a huge issue. I prefer the slightly farther one as my doctors are there.