Expensive Ride
A few weeks back I checked myself into the emergency room at my local hospital. They did a cat-scan and the doc said he wanted to transport me to a larger hospital where there was a surgeon who would operate as soon as I got there. The EMT's who transported me could not have been better, very professional and just really reassuring. The ride was about 35 or 40 miles. Well, I got the first of the bills today. It was for the ambulance ride and the first amount was a little over $2000.00. Then there was a milage charge just over $900.00. So almost three grand. Thank God for insurance as my cost was $163.00. I can imagine the cost to maintain a truck and crew would be high but not this much.
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Just be glad it was not the "flight for life".
Talk about sticker shock.
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Money, money, money, blah, blah, blah...
Are ya Okay? We've got a lot of time invested in you, Ricci, and you'd be kinda tough to replace.
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Butchdog3: 30292761798299/comments/30292736855579
Just be glad it was not the "flight for life".
Talk about sticker shock.
Yeah ,,,,,,, buddy and his wife needed separate ‘flights’ $25k each. No insurance. The hospital bill was over one million.
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They can and do charge whatever they want. Nothing we can do about it
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NeoBlackdog: 30292761798299/comments/30292762654619
Money, money, money, blah, blah, blah...
Are ya Okay? We've got a lot of time invested in you, Ricci, and you'd be kinda tough to replace.
Well hell I feel all warm inside. Yup, I am doing pretty well now. Thank you.
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Happy to hear that you're home. About 30 years ago I got a call about 2:00 AM from a friend in Deadwood. He was part of a family I met a few years earlier on one of my many trips to Sturgis. His 15 y.o. daughter was in Mexico on a summer school trip with many of her classmates. She had to get home and to fly her to Denver on an emergency flight was $thousands. We negotiated with her original trip airline and got her to Denver on a priority scheduled flight. Mom & dad drove from Deadwood to Denver and picked her up. I don't remember what the original cost was but it may have been around 10K and this was in '90's money.
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My parents had a medical transport insurance (MASA I think) while they traveled the USA for several years. Once, it flew them back home from Texas to the No. East. Then flew me to Tx to drive their truck & 5th wheel back.
Glad you're OK Ricci. Who would rattle Ken's cage if something happened to you.
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Glad your ok
Sad working people pay big to cover all the freeloaders who get it all fee
My wife took a ride a couple yrs back we had just left the hospital we all were having fun with covid crap. Her the worst of us all
She had a bad reaction to the medication they gave her just a couple hours after getting home and wanted to go back by priority ems express
The bill was crazy also just to go 13 miles
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Well, hope all is on the mend and yea expensive but the alternative is not good. Having worked in a hospital 25 years there are so many people that use the ambulance as a "taxi cab" and have no means of paying. Hence the large bill, 😐️
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A long time ago I got a bill for about 600 dollars for a 15 minute ambulance ride. I told the biller I didn't have the money and needed to go on a payment plan.
I paid them 25 dollars a month for two years. I hope that pi$$ed them off as much as their bill did to me.
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I went to the emergency room a few years ago. The ambulance was close to $2000 which I knew I had to pay. The ride was only about 10 miles. The cost goes to the insurance company and comes off my deductible but my deductible is $9000. The ambulance service has a program which if you donate to them the ride is supposed to be covered but in today’s world covered doesn’t mean you don’t pay. I know people that joined and expect not to pay but the catch is if you don’t have insurance its free otherwise it goes to your insurance company and you still need to pay your deductible.
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I feel your pain.
Been there, done that. (Twice.) 😢
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Butchdog3: 30292761798299/comments/30292736855579
Just be glad it was not the "flight for life".
Talk about sticker shock.
Also be glad you were not critical and needing transport by flight
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KL: 30292761798299/comments/30292753408155
A long time ago I got a bill for about 600 dollars for a 15 minute ambulance ride. I told the biller I didn't have the money and needed to go on a payment plan.
I paid them 25 dollars a month for two years. I hope that pi$$ed them off as much as their bill did to me.
Please look at my post and you will see why it costs so much. They have to respond to all calls in our county and dare say a large percentage is calls that were not necessary and totally a waste of their resources. People who use them that do that are on the government dole and the service will never get a dime. Just my opinion in my region.
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I'll almost bet Ricci the stay there cost more than the ride there and back,,,,,
you sound a lot like me, don't go to doctor till you just can't take it anymore, then its usually to late, glad to hear they caught it in time and have ya on the mend...
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Grasshopper: 30292761798299/comments/30292769938075
https://forums.gunbroker.com/discussion/comment/11387167#Comment_11387167
Please look at my post and you will see why it costs so much. They have to respond to all calls in our county and dare say a large percentage is calls that were not necessary and totally a waste of their resources. People who use them that do that are on the government dole and the service will never get a dime. Just my opinion in my region.
Around here some folks will use them for a taxi ride downtown. they will call 911 complaining of chest pain, when they arrive downtown at the hospital they will refuse medical treatment and walk out of the ER
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On my only ambulance ride, they tried to bill the wrong insurance company, which, of course, wouldn't pay. Finally got it straightened out after multiple calls and a couple of denials as they still tried to bill the wrong company that had a similar name.
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Tell them you will paint their ambulance fleet with a nice brown water based coating. You can then call the bill even. Home Depot has a sale on Glidden paint and if you use their credit card you get an additional 25 bucks off.
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You're paying for a vehicle loaded with specialized equipment and for 3 guy's time who have specialized training in an hour long ride, plus their time spent in prepping. Plus consumables. And the business gets no kickbacks from the government or the hospitals and must carry expensive insurance policies themselves. And if they don't make some level of profit they aren't going to stay in business long. Once you add all that up it's easy to see why it is so expensive, even if that doesn't make it any more palatable.
But!!!
I'm glad you're ok, man. I look forward to your posts on this forum and frankly this forum needs you here. So keep well, dood.
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Thank you, Sir. Everything medical here for three counties is owned by Novant Health. The county commissioners decided a while back to sell our hospitals to Novant and the first thing they did was to fire most of the nurses. There were long, very long waits for emergency care, like ten or fifteen hours sometimes. At least one person died in a hallway while waiting. The whole thing was very bad. Now most of the nurses are travelling nurses and things are better but not great.
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I grumble all the time about the bill from the hospital,where I had heart surgery that saved my life,so I will have more time with my family.After thinking it through I decided I am an A-hole and owe the doctors and hospital a debt of thanks that could never be re-paid.
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Just glad your okay my friend. Donna took an ambulance ride two years ago, for a bad gull bladder. Eight miles to the hospital. They charged my insurance company 5,000. Talk about a rip off. Next time, I will make her walk. LOL
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About 15 years ago I worked at a major construction site in Decatur, Alabama and this guy in his late twenties had a severe heart attack. It was bad enough for them call a life flight helicopter and fly him to a hospital in Tennessee. He ended up getting a bill for $39,000 from the Helicopter company. Yep, Thirty Nine Thousand Dollars! He fought the bill and lost, ended up getting his paychecks garnished.
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Wife had to be flown about 15 years ago, 15 minutes, 22,000.00, now same flight is 40,000.00.
We have med flight insurance now, 65.00 per year for both of us paid buy local Fire dept as retirement perk.
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Had an ER visit couple months ago, no ambulance involved just ER. Bill over 10K .
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