Question:
I was charged $2,000 for a 4-mile ambulance trip and my insurance paid $500. Now the EMS company wants me to pay the balance. I think the charges are ridiculous and I wonder if they would write off the balance since they already got some money out of my insurer.
Answers:
See my answer to your first question. This is not unusual, and you need to check with your insurance company. If you post your city and state I will find the rates for your area.
when my dad got in a car accident the airvac company wanted to charge 12,000 for airvacing(sp?) him to the hospital about 20 miles away. I dont know what you can do but my mom got the company to charge only 8,000.
having a membership with the ambulance service has privalges - they accept what ins pays them as payment in full
non-members has to pay whatever ins does not
NO sh*t, that's like $14.00 a foot. That's outrageous. Those bastards charged me once almost that much for a trip that was more like 4 blocks. Tell them when you called they misunderstood you and that you were not interested in buying the ambulance just riding in it.
Some ambulance services have a deal where you can become like a member and you pay a yearly fee. Then if you use the service and you have insurance, they will still bill your insurance company for the full amount. I wouldn't pay it. Screw em.
This sounds pretty standard. My dad was a hospital administrator for years and he once told me that simply starting the helicopter engine was a $1000 bill for the patient. The helicopters were expensive to operate and they were happy to pass the costs on to the patients.
However, there is always room for negotiation with medical bills. Check with your insurance carrier for the details on your policy. It seems unlikely you would have a 25/75 split with them but they may expect you to pay a portion of each bill. Maybe they can provide you with the reasonable and customary charges for ambulance service in your area.
Your insurance paid only $500? Did they process it at a non-preferred rate? Some policies consider ambulance services one of those services that are catch-as-catch-can, so they are always paid at 100% after deductible, since so few are preferred providers. Check your policy and find out if there's a way to get your insurance to pay more on it.
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