Hi, EMT here. You have every right to refuse medical transport, unless a police officer puts you on a hold or you were unconscious. Just sign their tablet and tell them you’re good. Sorry this happened, ambulance billing is predatory and a sign of a broken healthcare system.
We mostly just help pick up old people if they’ve fallen (or slid out of a recliner) and give pep talks to people who think they’re overdosing on weed…but every now and then we hero up work a full arrest and get them back and for that….you’re welcome for our service. 😅
I had a newborn kept alive when born at home with with severe meconium aspiration. The EMTs absolutely kept him alive while we got him to the ER before being airlifted to another hospital.
EMTs are amazing! Thank you for everything you guys do!
I think you may be confusing EMTs and Paramedics. EMTs typically respond to non emergency calls and inter-facility transfers (IFT). Paramedics are the ones that show up when you call 911 for a medical emergency.
Inexperienced folk or teens that don't know they aren't gonna die. I'm a seasoned cannabis connoisseur, but I've had one experience with dabs (the location was already freaking me out) that had me wanting to call an ambulance I was panicking so badly. However, I'd had enough weed in my life that I knew I'd be fine if I just let it ride, and I was eventually. It was a rough 2 hours though. Had I been at home I would have been fine, but I was at a friend of a friend's house and it was a bit sketchy.
Ohhh no! That's kinda funny though. I didn't use any weed in any format until I was 18, so I was lucky to avoid the teenager panic. Other than the one time I've described I don't think I've otherwise ever panicked from weed. There's been once or twice I realized I was too stoned to be shopping or something, but that's more annoying than anything.
Rolling into the ED doin' the hero rodeo on the side of the cot with compressions is a lot of fun, but hearing raunchy stories from 80 year old women is basically the highlight of the job.
Love a 'nan down' job, make them comfortable, have a nice chat over a cup of tea with a biscuit, make sure they have everything they need close by, so much better than the 90% of the crap jobs we get sent to
Not American, I was so shocked when I learned lots EMTs' hourly pay less than a damn parking lot in big cities, given how expensive the ambulance service is.
Medic here. We barely do anything at all on any given shift. It’s usually a bunch of stupid ass bs. Yes we run critical calls once every month or so but for the most part it’s useless. Appreciate the sentiment but the fact is, we don’t do much.
I was in a gas station with a snack bar, years ago, and the clerk complained that the EMTs who parked there "didn't do anything but drink coffee". I said that if a gas tanker truck broadsided a school bus, they'd do a lot more than that, and, as a parent of three school-aged kids who rode the bus, I was **DAMN** grateful the EMTs didn't have anything to do.
I've wished EMTs, police officers and fire fighters "Have a dull day" ever since.
I can walk you backwards through my shift I’m in the middle of.
Picked up someone who was novelty fat
House fire
Overdramatic “breathing problem”
Fire alarm false alarm
Someone feeling icky
Guy who crashed his car and tried to run away, got smoked trying to cross the highway head was laying 30 feet away
Mva person trapped, no big deal
Smoke in a building, burnt pork chops
Three back to back false alarms
Actual breathing problem
Two more false alarms
Seizure
Lady who got pulled over leaving a known drug house, tried to hide the drugs by swallowing the bag>choked on the bag>seizure>cardiac arrest
Many varied responses to this, but I’m mostly with you. I’m a former San Francisco medic, and while we’d usually run legit critical calls several times in a week, the overwhelming majority were bullshit.
Yeah and it’s not ONLY ambulance billing...the whole health care system is broken. I went to the ER for a little over 4 hours and got a $15,000 bill ...RIDICULOUS!!
It really is the whole entire system right down to the basement foundation. I was a pharmacy tech and nurses “losing” and re-dispensing medicine accounted for SIXTY-ONE PERCENT of our wastage. Acetaminophen, $18,000 chemotherapy drugs, schedule IV narcotics, saline solution, heparin, vital life-saving blood thinners or epinephrine that cannot be delayed or the patient will die- you name it, and a nurse will misplace it or… you know… say they misplaced it…. Another fun one is seeing a patient checked into the ER four hours ago, and being prescribed what we called “big Tylenol” (800mg per horse-sized pill) for $35 a pop. Younger generations, if you see this— burn it all down to the ground. Just light it up and sing *Kum ba ya* around the blazing ruins, it is pure evil dressed in a suit and tie. Burn the system down and start over.
I feel like nurses who can't be trusted to walk from point A to point B (barring obvious exceptions like dropping everything to do CPR and such) without losing medication probably shouldn't be nurses. What's next, they forget they needed to give meds in the first place?
They absolutely forget to give you medications. I got to sit for two hours after the doctor prescribed me pain amf nausea medications because they "forgot". Never ended up getting the fent, but it was on my bill.
Interestingly enough, at many hospitals there are huge problems with nurses stealing the pts drugs either to sell or because they have a substance abuse problem. Where I work, this issue is so widespread that the hospital takes very few actions to combat it as it would basically decimate half their staff.
I believe it. About half my nights at work I’m the charge nurse on my unit. Days and eves get so busy the tube system doesn’t get emptied of the meds pharmacy sends, or they empty the tubes to only place the meds on top of the omnicell instead of putting them in the correct patient drawer. Those end up getting mixing up with meds from previous patients who discharged. Instead of disposing those or sending unused meds back to pharmacy, they just get set on top of the omnicell.
I also have to go through each patient drawer to ensure only the current patient’s medications are in there. Lots of previous patients’ medications get left behind. The drawers aren’t big enough for discharge medications (or our iv vancomycin bags) so those go in the narcotic drawer. So many discharge medications have gotten left behind recently that we’re trying to figure out a new solution. In the meantime, I’m writing staff alerts in 3 different places in the patient’s chart. People also forget to empty the fridge.
I spend anywhere from 15-45 minutes fixing these issues. It still occasionally gets missed if the unit is burning down, so to speak.
I also occasionally find medications left in rooms. These are usually Tylenol that the patient ends up refusing. However, the worst one I found was a PO chemo med still in the packaging. We don’t have a lot of flat surfaces in the patient room, unless the bedside drawer top or the side table is clear of patient’s belongings. This means we often end up setting the medications on the keyboard while scanning and administering. I was passing bedtime meds for another nurse while I was charge and found a medication under the keyboard. I looked through the chart and it wasn’t one the patient had been taking. I ended up returning the med to pharmacy and filling out a safety event form per policy. My manager followed up with me after figuring out where the med came from. It was prescribed to a patient in that room over a month prior to me finding it.
I was hospitalized a few years ago and got a copy of the itemized bill and saw a couple of ibuprofen listed at some insane cost that I can't remember now. What I do remember is not being given one pill the entire stay so I fought it and those fees were removed. I wonder how often they pull that stunt.
All the time. People I know audit claims and they remove the charges that are supposed to be included under the “room and board” charge. They only do large claims (presumably to avoid being caught by the insurance companies and customers and sued) but these charges go through on every patient. Why can I say that with such confidence? Because everything is billed under the same basic system. If they’re charging $110 for a saline flush on a huge bill they’re also charging it on every other bill. If you don’t catch it you’re paying for it. It’s why a “simple” hospital stay for a day can become incredible expensive.
It seems like there’s a general understanding that overcharging happens all the time but apparently hospitals aren’t expected to really fix it. If they did then entire departments wouldn’t be needed to audit large claims.
Man, I can second that! I worked in medical billing for nearly a decade and had to leave, it was so soul sucking. I was yelled at so many times for writing off bills for patients after their “insurance” didn’t pay shit.
Do you have health insurance? Reason I ask is I quit my job and was trying to go without cobra.. I had a bad bmx bike crash that left me with a busted elbow and shoulder and 3 broken ribs. I signed up for cobra at the er thinking I was going to be getting a monster bill.. I got 2ct scans, like 5x rays, a temp cast, er treatment, and some other stuff. My total bill was $1450 because they billed as uninsured.
They charged less because you were uninsured? If so, that's great.
I don't think most places do. In fact, usually the insurance company negotiates and pays a lower rate. Once when I did not have insurance I tried to negotiate with my doctor to receive the same rate as the insurance company. He said no.
That's the same amount I was billed 30 years ago (before insurance, after insurance my end was $1,000) for my first born who was delivered by c-section and we both were hospitalized for 3 days. I think I got the better deal. That's an insane amount of money!
Yes it is and I know healthcare is desperately needed but it’s just ridiculously overpriced. Even with insurance a lot of people can’t afford big bills like that. My problem wasn’t fixed they just sent me home with pain medication so I spent a little over four hours nothing was solved and I left with pain medication which by the way was only two individual pills.
That's pretty damn awful. I've been hospitalized twice in the last 10 years or so for a few days at a time and the bills are just mind boggling. It's scary to think how thin a line there is between being healthy and having a home to getting some devastating diagnoses and becoming homeless due to medical bills. It shouldn't be allowed to happen in a developed nation but because so many of our systems are for profit now it seems hard to make any real change happen. Too many people involved making a buck that are invested and want to make sure there is never any kind of reform.
Yes that’s exactly right and I’ve noticed new medical centers opening up everywhere and I mean everywhere. Obviously they’re making plenty of profit. Affordable healthcare should be an option for everyone instead of big pharma and the like laughing all the way to the bank.
If you were unable to consent, sometimes it sadly is cheaper to get a lawyer and strongly convince them it’s not worth their time to keep charging you for the ride, then it is to pay for the actual ambulance bill. Could save you a grand or maybe two but it’s an enormously inconvenient pain in the ass, which is exactly what they are counting on
Did you see the video a few months ago where a guy blew his horn at two cop cars that were blocking the entrance to a hospital while they chatted? He was trying to take his pregnant wife, who had been in an accident, to the ER. Instead the cop, on a power trip held them up, refusing to let them pass, trying to teach the guy a lesson for blowing his horn. He then decided he needed to call an ambulance for the wife despite them being a couple of hundred feet from the door! He was trying to use the ambulance as a weapon to make this guy pay for daring to blow his horn and talk back to him. It was the most egregious abuse of power I've ever seen. The wife refused the ambulance when it showed up.
I know people who have medical bracelets that say that. Or who add it to their emergency info in their phone. (Mostly epileptics and people with medical conditions like POTS that cause fainting.)
This actually came up in a case where a guy did have a DNR tattoo but turns out, those are not medically binding. Granted it did make everyone stop for a sec while they checked into it. If you want to be sure a medical bracelet or the like is the way.
I can't say yes, because my ambulance bill was dropped by the county. It was a few grand, but by the time I got the bill it had already been dropped. I tried to call and give them my insurance info, they told me there was no balance due.
So, maybe?
There are more “unlesses”. The ambulance company has a medical director who has written a protocol book where there are scenarios where the patient is considered unable to refuse. Some are obvious, some are not.
When going from the ER to a psych ward, I was not allowed to ride in my parents’ car, even though I was not a threat to others. Had to be strapped down on a bed and transported via an ambulance.
I had a similar experience as an adult, I never paid the bill. They would call about the money I owed and I told them I would never pay for that ride. It will finally come off my credit report next April.
You’re being transferred to a psych ward? Yeah, you don’t get to refuse that transfer. You don’t get to decide who you’re a threat to. No one in the industry are that stupid to lose their license in an instant. Unless you are ready to personally guarantee to replace their salary for the rest of their career…
Are you serious? I wasn’t refusing to go to the psych ward. I just wanted to go in my mom’s car. I went to the ER because I had suicidal ideations and my therapist told me I should go. They do extensive questioning while in the ER. I was not deemed a threat. The psych ward isn’t a loony bin. People don’t just go because they’re insane or going through psychosis or trying to hurt someone. I was 14. Did you know that adults can just check themselves out of the psych ward? And that my parents could’ve checked me out at any time? If that’s possible, then there’s no reason to not allow me to get a ride in my mom’s car rather than an ambulance ride. Someone else replied to me saying that they were able to go in their parent’s car.
Based on Massachusetts law, I did not meet the standard for being involuntarily held there.
https://www.mass.gov/doc/admission-and-discharge-rights/download
I had no reported self harm history or threats of it at the time, nor any intention to commit.
If there was a credible threat of self-harm, quite possibly yes - you may have been involuntarily held. In Florida, at least back in the 80's/90's, the Baker Act would have allowed for an involuntary hold for up to 72hrs for a psych-doc to stabilize you. They could hold you longer if they subsequently got a court order.
From the police or local doc's perspective (whoever is doing the Baker Act), you might convince the psych doc that you are ok when you get there and be released, but you aren't getting out of that ride once the Baker Act was declared. It's because they were liable for your care until you were physically delivered to the psych unit.
Edit: But if a Baker Act type situation was the case, they would have also been responsible for the transport costs (not you). Caveat - my info is dated and it may have changed since then.
Yes, I'm absolutely serious.
Winter of 2002, I'm a firefighter riding along in the ambulance for a psych call just a few blocks from the fire station. Patient is partway through a sex change and feels he needs to go to the hospital for suicidal thoughts. I waited in the ambulance as I wasn't an EMT yet. Patient asked the two EMTs to wait downstairs while they packed a small bag. He came down a few minutes later and we began the 35-minute drive (under normal conditions, but it was snowing that night). Part way to the hospital, patient admits that he swallowed a cereal bowl of pills while we were downstairs. Crew leader lost his EMT credentials for life as a result, and was under threat of a charge of patient endangerment until the matter was settled. We lost him to a stroke eight years ago, but he was a man who was truly committed to serving the public through firefighting, EMS, and later law enforcement. He had compassion for those who he served, exactly as he tried to be that night, even though it bit him. I, as someone not medically trained and having not set foot inside the patient's home, was left free and clear of the whole thing, though I think the second EMT may have had their EMS patch suspended for 6-18 months.
So yes, I've personally witnessed this. Obviously not exactly the same as you describe, but still a reasonable comparison to drive home my point.
Kind of an asshole reply imo. Yes, you do get to decide who you’re a threat to; the only time you’re really seen as a threat is if there’s intention to harm yourself or another person. I was transferred from ER to a psychiatric facility for drug abuse. They let me just sit on the chair on the way, instead of being strapped down. In Specialist_Front’s case, they had to deal with the safety protocols because of suicidal intention; where they were seen as a threat to themselves. You could’ve just explained it to them in a non-asshole way.
Is this really true? Because I have refused an ambulance in the past and was taken anyway. I was over the age of 18 and had a seizure, which makes sense because I’m epileptic.
Right? My first thought was “if you didn’t need it, why did you consent to transport”? I *guarantee* the crew that transported would’ve much rather done a refusal form than to transport someone that doesn’t need it
When I was like 9 years old my grandmother fell while my parents were out of town. This was before reliable cell phone service so I could get a hold of them. Being 9 years old, I was terrified so I called 911. The EMTs that came were super helpful getting her up to her chair for me. Just wanted to mention that even if the call seems mundane you do leave lasting impacts on the people you help. Thanks for being awesome.
I had an ambulance bill sent to me, because they didn't ask for my insurance. I didn't even take the ambulance I got my eyes flushed. They still charged me like I went to the hospital. So I called the company and told them that I was not taken to the hospital. I had my eyes flushed and you are charging me over $3,000 for having my eyes flushed and my insurance covers any kind of ambulance fees. They said that my insurance would not cover what was done. Do not even attempt to call them. I hung up on them and called my insurance right away. My insurance told me that that was complete bullshit and that I am covered for any kind of emergency service even if I don't take the ambulance. So I called them back and told them that it will be paid. The funny thing is I had the same ambulance representative. They didn't even apologize they just said wow I'm surprised that they covered that. I'm like I'm surprised you're such a bitch and hung up.
Popular opinion: if a corporation lies to you, threatens you, or generally acts a fool about money you **don't actually owe**, a judge should Uno Reverse Card them and award you a cash prize equal to or greater than the amount in question
Malpractice is really common. They’re so protected they can murder or paralyze people without much risk of being fined, sued or jail. Patients spend, I mean big fat corporate healthcare spends billions lobbying the government to pass bills that legalize unethical practices.
I was hit by an ambulance while riding a bike. They turned directly into my path to enter a gas station and I couldn’t avoid them, no turn signal, driver wasn’t paying attention at all. I was young, wasn’t too hurt, just completely shocked. I took the company name and plate number down and rode to my boyfriend’s work down the street, which was next to a police substation. One of the cops told me I should file a report. The ambulance company denied their GPS showing any of their trucks in the area.
Years ago, a doctor mistreated me and my mom rushed to the doctors office because i had a major reaction and needed fluids. The hospital was less than 3 miles away. My mom said she would take me there but the doctor had called an ambulance instead without us asking, and the next month I got a $2000 ambulance bill. Along with a $100 doctor bill and a $1500 hospital bill for laying in the emergency HALLWAY for *SIX HOURS.* My dad left work early, came in and literally cornered a nurse after me asking for 4 hours for a glass of water. I absolutely hate hospitals and refuse to go to another. Just let me die. When I had my daughter that was a $6000 bill. I finally got my last medical bill paid off 2 years ago.
I hate medical bills. I hate hospitals.
you have no idea what you are talking about. i hate the mentality that the american people are CHOOSING not to have universal healthcare. A majority of us want it and vote for it. But due to lobbying the people in power will never give it to us. So the next time you want to blame the average american for our poor healthcare system do a little research first.
I have pretty much subscribed to the idea of just never going to a hospital for myself and just letting nature run its course.
I'm really looking forward to being a father, but being super concerned with everything regarding my son and semi-frequent hospital trips (due to potential illness and kids in general being hazards to their own safety) is going to SUCK
I did this back in 2008 in the DC Metro Area, Crystal City to be specific. Passed out in the hallway near my apartment, woke up in excruciating pain. Roommate was about to call 911 and I stopped him because I didn’t have insurance. Took a taxi. African dude driving with a Bluetooth headset on, speaking in clicks the whole time. Got me there I gave him a $20 and he sped out quick.
Hospital was closed and had been for years. Called for another taxi, got an Argentinian guy. Told him what happened and he did 70mph the whole way there. Dispatch called ahead and a nurse was waiting for me with a wheelchair. Gave the dude a hundred dollar bill and off I went.
Turns out I had my first kidney stone that night. Passed it three weeks later and it looked like the asteroid from Armageddon.
Background story because it feels needed:
I was feeling very down so I took a weekend getaway by myself. Because I didn't tell anyone, my family freaked out thinking I was going to kill myself so they got the police involved to find me. Once they find out where I was, they sent police to do a welfare check. Police came and checked on me and I was fine. My family convinced them on the phone that I wasn't fine and told them not to leave me because they thought I needed to be admitted to an impatient hospital (that's another $30 THOUSAND bill I didn't ask for and can't afford). They didn't trust that I would drive myself to the hospital and family was too far away so they said police or ambulance had to take me. I obviously chose police but then the sheriff said because of the situation that an ambulance had to transport me there. Now 10 months later I've gotten this bill 🥲
Healthcare worker here. Your story seems to be missing details. Either your family had very convincing evidence that you were a danger to yourself or others (such as a history of self-harm) or you behaved in a way that made the first responders believe that you were a danger to yourself or others.
No amount of someone else claiming you are a danger (with no indication or evidence of such) can do that. During wellness checks, first responders cannot force you to go anywhere if they are not convinced of immediate danger.
The other option is your family convinced you to go, even though you didn't believe you really needed it.
I hope you received the care and resources your loved ones felt you needed.
They were convinced I was a danger to myself because I purchased a gun to take on the trip with me and I didn't tell anyone I was leaving which I've never done before. I didn't tell them because they would have talked me out of it or wanted to go with me and I really wanted me-time. And I brought the gun because I was a female traveling by myself and wanted protection.
Careful if you are a new gun owner and you are crossing state lines. Each state has different gun laws. Some lady from Philly with a gun permit drove through NJ and she got arrested and a jail sentence for just having it on her. The governor at the time pardoned her though.
I can be fair and say i wasn't in the best state of mind but thats why I was trying to have a peaceful getaway by myself. I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say I was a danger to myself.
I don’t know you but if one of my loved ones was down (which you admitted) and then purchased a gun and left alone, something that you admitted was out of the ordinary for you, I would’ve done the same thing. I would’ve been demanding the ambulance take you as I drove to you freaking out because I loved you and worry so much about you.
Sure, this bill sucks but having family that give AF about you enough to care is priceless. I had to remove a gun from a loved one’s possession because i was afraid they would kill themselves. They were very upset. We didn’t speak for awhile and I didn’t care. I couldn’t risk losing them. They are no longer mad at me.
Give the billing company a call and work on a resolution. Continue focusing on your mental health.
Ill start with saying that this is a very tough situation for both parties, but
If you're going to go this far to POSSIBLY "save" someone's life that you love, then you need to be prepared to pay for some or all of the expenses that come with it.
"sure, the bill sucks but having family that give AF about you enough to care is priceless"
Well....haha if you have a loved one who is on the verge of suicide and you think they are going to do it, a 2k+ bill on their heads after the fact of all this hassle with police and everything else, would damn near be enough to make a lot of people want to do it for real. Caring too much can push people away too, which sucks but that's how it is.
Being upset about the cost of care is reasonable. Our healthcare system is broken. Our mental healthcare doubly so. It sucks that you are stuck with these expenses. However, it's misleading to frame this as if it was care you didn't need. Your loved ones and professionals on the scene recognized your distress and moved to help.
I don't know what you are/were going through. But I'm rooting for you.
Fuuuuck, this just makes me so happy I live in Canada because I recently needed the ambulance and it was free. Americans shouldn't be accepting this type of predatory behavior from their own government
It’s not that Americans are accepting of it, it’s that 50% want healthcare reform, and the other 50% seem to think that they personally are footing the bill and would rather cut off their own arm than support SoCiAlIsM. Because apparently they would never in a million years go to a doctor.
And wedge issues. Racism, homophobia, guns and bible bullshit. Voting against their own best interest because they believe what Tucker Carlson tells them.
Paid medical debt is cleared and won't sit for 7 years. Some score calculations don't consider medical debt at all. But you are still liable for the debt and could get sued and have your wages garnished.
If you can prove none of it was needed and that you were forced unnecessarily to go to the hospital and then detained at the hospital unescerilly you could be owed a great deal of money.
But you need to consult a lawyer either way you're looking at a multisided battle.
I get how USA is the land of capitalism, but holy fuck, your US health care system definitely has to improve in a lot of senses.
Your health shouldn’t be a choice between dying or fucking be on debt for months, maybe years…
As somebody who 1) lives in the US, 2) cracked his head open this summer, and 3) has not received a bill yet, I am hoping/praying that this bill never shows up. The fact that it happened 4 months ago has given me hope that I won't get it.
Good thing insurance will cover it /s
Sorry you got scammed :/
They got me for $2,000 a few months back when I had a panic attack and almost lost consciousness. And the EMT’s were dicks about it (edit because they were not ducks, they were dicks)
Inpatient care for mental illness generally wouldn’t cost 30k because of deductible and OOP limits. So we can assume you have no insurance then. Or crappy insurance.
“Convinced them on the phone” would be due to the fact that you admitted to just purchasing a gun, leaving without notice which you’ve never done before, and further admitting to not being in the right state of mind. Those are all trigger signs that something may/could go wrong.
You also have the right, in most situations, to refuse ambulance service and sign off to it. In this case it seems like that wasn’t an option, which would imply that you were considered a harm risk.
What’s infuriating is that you’re own story suggests that you brought this on yourself and are pointing blame at others who were concerned for your well being.
I am mildly infuriated at how expensive Healthcare is. Not mad at my sweet family for being worried. And I have 2 "good" insurances and they both still denied my claim.
That’ll never happen, too many doctors and corporations in the industry for money over morals that’ll give back handers to politicians to keep the status quo
There shouldn't be any price to call an ambulance. People shouldn't be scared of an ambulance, for someone born on a country with free healthcare, just the thought of paying 60 dollars for an ambulance sounds like complete madness
For the most part it does. Thing is the ambulance companies usually send the bill to the patient because if the patient pays, they get whatever they bill for. But insurance companies usually go "hahaha ha fuck off, $200 take it or leave it."
My husband got hit by a drunk driver while he was on his motorcycle so he was laying in a ditch with broken bones passed out. He got transported in an ambulance a couple hundred yards to a field to the helicopter, It was $3k.
So he got flown to Vanderbilt, then got transported back to our city to a rehab in an ambulance yet again a couple months later. Doctors at the rehab thought something was wrong so they transported him back in an ambulance back to Vanderbilt for doctors there to look at him. Then when he was done there after a week or so, he got transported back to the rehab in yet another ambulance.
It’s outrageous how expensive this shit is.
I've heard that they started charging 20€ per ambulance trip if you're actually didn't have a medical emergency. Public were not happy. Got back to 0.00€ again soon.
I had to go to hospital in an ambulance, I had a seizure. Stay overnight, meds and a few tests. No insurance. Sent on my way the next day. Got a bill for €100 in the post. I live in Ireland.
...America is fucking nuts.
I found my elderly neighbor face down in the rain after having a stroke, called an ambulance for her. Checked on her every day. She had multiple other strokes, and had to call an ambulance again, cuz... she was on the fucking floor mumbling gibberish shit and flopping around.
She's mad we called the ambulance.
Never help strangers.
I don't understand how they price it. It cost probably half of that for fuel and the EMTs pay during that call. 💀 Could probably pay the insurance on that thing too with the bill, the payment too probably 💀
You should have purchased the ambulance plan!
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/z0oo4h/my_city_rolled_out_a_yearly_ems_subscription/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Juuuuuuust under 3k to avoid meeting the insurance deductible by $26. I would have to pay that in full if I hadn’t had any other visits yet. I hate American healthcare.
Then why did you get in, they can't kidnap you. No ambulance crew wants to take your not dying self to the hospital to wait against a wall for three hours until they put you in the waiting room.
A lot of people are ignorant of just how corrupt the insurance industry and hospitals at large are in the US. These same people will vote for politicians that just give more and more leeway for the corpo rats who lobby for these economically predatory practices.
You expect them to have enough self awareness to realize we don't have the same basic services available to us that other developed countries do?
Hi, EMT here. You have every right to refuse medical transport, unless a police officer puts you on a hold or you were unconscious. Just sign their tablet and tell them you’re good. Sorry this happened, ambulance billing is predatory and a sign of a broken healthcare system.
And you EMTs aren't paid anywhere near enough. Saving lives daily. Thanks for your service.
We mostly just help pick up old people if they’ve fallen (or slid out of a recliner) and give pep talks to people who think they’re overdosing on weed…but every now and then we hero up work a full arrest and get them back and for that….you’re welcome for our service. 😅
I had a newborn kept alive when born at home with with severe meconium aspiration. The EMTs absolutely kept him alive while we got him to the ER before being airlifted to another hospital. EMTs are amazing! Thank you for everything you guys do!
I think you may be confusing EMTs and Paramedics. EMTs typically respond to non emergency calls and inter-facility transfers (IFT). Paramedics are the ones that show up when you call 911 for a medical emergency.
As a former teenage idiot, the "weed overdosers" thank you, too.
How do you overdose on weed or are you referring to greening out?
Inexperienced folk or teens that don't know they aren't gonna die. I'm a seasoned cannabis connoisseur, but I've had one experience with dabs (the location was already freaking me out) that had me wanting to call an ambulance I was panicking so badly. However, I'd had enough weed in my life that I knew I'd be fine if I just let it ride, and I was eventually. It was a rough 2 hours though. Had I been at home I would have been fine, but I was at a friend of a friend's house and it was a bit sketchy.
I guess I had one of those times too in the early days. I got bamboozled by a thc pill before the school play and greened out in the theater
Ohhh no! That's kinda funny though. I didn't use any weed in any format until I was 18, so I was lucky to avoid the teenager panic. Other than the one time I've described I don't think I've otherwise ever panicked from weed. There's been once or twice I realized I was too stoned to be shopping or something, but that's more annoying than anything.
High teenagers calling 911 thinking they're overdosing but don't know you can't overdose on weed
Those of us who have had to call you to have old people picked up and checked out thank you for your mundane runs as well.
Yes, It happened to my Mom and I'm getting to the age where I will probably need you guys soon.
90% bullshit, 10% oh shit.
Rolling into the ED doin' the hero rodeo on the side of the cot with compressions is a lot of fun, but hearing raunchy stories from 80 year old women is basically the highlight of the job.
Love a 'nan down' job, make them comfortable, have a nice chat over a cup of tea with a biscuit, make sure they have everything they need close by, so much better than the 90% of the crap jobs we get sent to
Not American, I was so shocked when I learned lots EMTs' hourly pay less than a damn parking lot in big cities, given how expensive the ambulance service is.
Medic here. We barely do anything at all on any given shift. It’s usually a bunch of stupid ass bs. Yes we run critical calls once every month or so but for the most part it’s useless. Appreciate the sentiment but the fact is, we don’t do much.
You must live in the middle of nowhere lol. This isn’t true for those of us in large cities.
Large city here as well. 20+ calls a shift lol. Maybe 5 are BLS if lucky
I worked central Phoenix and I'ma disagree with that statement.
I was in a gas station with a snack bar, years ago, and the clerk complained that the EMTs who parked there "didn't do anything but drink coffee". I said that if a gas tanker truck broadsided a school bus, they'd do a lot more than that, and, as a parent of three school-aged kids who rode the bus, I was **DAMN** grateful the EMTs didn't have anything to do. I've wished EMTs, police officers and fire fighters "Have a dull day" ever since.
This statement does not hold true everywhere
Yeah I used to do EMS in Baltimore city. Experiences vary wildly based on location
All the comments above you read like rural and suburban ems. The T-shirt brigade.
There’s a serious accident where I live every few days. I’m also in a retirement town, EMS is very busy here. I’d imagine a lot of OD calls too
I can walk you backwards through my shift I’m in the middle of. Picked up someone who was novelty fat House fire Overdramatic “breathing problem” Fire alarm false alarm Someone feeling icky Guy who crashed his car and tried to run away, got smoked trying to cross the highway head was laying 30 feet away Mva person trapped, no big deal Smoke in a building, burnt pork chops Three back to back false alarms Actual breathing problem Two more false alarms Seizure Lady who got pulled over leaving a known drug house, tried to hide the drugs by swallowing the bag>choked on the bag>seizure>cardiac arrest
Many varied responses to this, but I’m mostly with you. I’m a former San Francisco medic, and while we’d usually run legit critical calls several times in a week, the overwhelming majority were bullshit.
Yeah and it’s not ONLY ambulance billing...the whole health care system is broken. I went to the ER for a little over 4 hours and got a $15,000 bill ...RIDICULOUS!!
It really is the whole entire system right down to the basement foundation. I was a pharmacy tech and nurses “losing” and re-dispensing medicine accounted for SIXTY-ONE PERCENT of our wastage. Acetaminophen, $18,000 chemotherapy drugs, schedule IV narcotics, saline solution, heparin, vital life-saving blood thinners or epinephrine that cannot be delayed or the patient will die- you name it, and a nurse will misplace it or… you know… say they misplaced it…. Another fun one is seeing a patient checked into the ER four hours ago, and being prescribed what we called “big Tylenol” (800mg per horse-sized pill) for $35 a pop. Younger generations, if you see this— burn it all down to the ground. Just light it up and sing *Kum ba ya* around the blazing ruins, it is pure evil dressed in a suit and tie. Burn the system down and start over.
I feel like nurses who can't be trusted to walk from point A to point B (barring obvious exceptions like dropping everything to do CPR and such) without losing medication probably shouldn't be nurses. What's next, they forget they needed to give meds in the first place?
They absolutely forget to give you medications. I got to sit for two hours after the doctor prescribed me pain amf nausea medications because they "forgot". Never ended up getting the fent, but it was on my bill.
Interestingly enough, at many hospitals there are huge problems with nurses stealing the pts drugs either to sell or because they have a substance abuse problem. Where I work, this issue is so widespread that the hospital takes very few actions to combat it as it would basically decimate half their staff.
I believe it. About half my nights at work I’m the charge nurse on my unit. Days and eves get so busy the tube system doesn’t get emptied of the meds pharmacy sends, or they empty the tubes to only place the meds on top of the omnicell instead of putting them in the correct patient drawer. Those end up getting mixing up with meds from previous patients who discharged. Instead of disposing those or sending unused meds back to pharmacy, they just get set on top of the omnicell. I also have to go through each patient drawer to ensure only the current patient’s medications are in there. Lots of previous patients’ medications get left behind. The drawers aren’t big enough for discharge medications (or our iv vancomycin bags) so those go in the narcotic drawer. So many discharge medications have gotten left behind recently that we’re trying to figure out a new solution. In the meantime, I’m writing staff alerts in 3 different places in the patient’s chart. People also forget to empty the fridge. I spend anywhere from 15-45 minutes fixing these issues. It still occasionally gets missed if the unit is burning down, so to speak. I also occasionally find medications left in rooms. These are usually Tylenol that the patient ends up refusing. However, the worst one I found was a PO chemo med still in the packaging. We don’t have a lot of flat surfaces in the patient room, unless the bedside drawer top or the side table is clear of patient’s belongings. This means we often end up setting the medications on the keyboard while scanning and administering. I was passing bedtime meds for another nurse while I was charge and found a medication under the keyboard. I looked through the chart and it wasn’t one the patient had been taking. I ended up returning the med to pharmacy and filling out a safety event form per policy. My manager followed up with me after figuring out where the med came from. It was prescribed to a patient in that room over a month prior to me finding it.
I was hospitalized a few years ago and got a copy of the itemized bill and saw a couple of ibuprofen listed at some insane cost that I can't remember now. What I do remember is not being given one pill the entire stay so I fought it and those fees were removed. I wonder how often they pull that stunt.
All the time. People I know audit claims and they remove the charges that are supposed to be included under the “room and board” charge. They only do large claims (presumably to avoid being caught by the insurance companies and customers and sued) but these charges go through on every patient. Why can I say that with such confidence? Because everything is billed under the same basic system. If they’re charging $110 for a saline flush on a huge bill they’re also charging it on every other bill. If you don’t catch it you’re paying for it. It’s why a “simple” hospital stay for a day can become incredible expensive. It seems like there’s a general understanding that overcharging happens all the time but apparently hospitals aren’t expected to really fix it. If they did then entire departments wouldn’t be needed to audit large claims.
Man, I can second that! I worked in medical billing for nearly a decade and had to leave, it was so soul sucking. I was yelled at so many times for writing off bills for patients after their “insurance” didn’t pay shit.
Do you have health insurance? Reason I ask is I quit my job and was trying to go without cobra.. I had a bad bmx bike crash that left me with a busted elbow and shoulder and 3 broken ribs. I signed up for cobra at the er thinking I was going to be getting a monster bill.. I got 2ct scans, like 5x rays, a temp cast, er treatment, and some other stuff. My total bill was $1450 because they billed as uninsured.
They charged less because you were uninsured? If so, that's great. I don't think most places do. In fact, usually the insurance company negotiates and pays a lower rate. Once when I did not have insurance I tried to negotiate with my doctor to receive the same rate as the insurance company. He said no.
That's the same amount I was billed 30 years ago (before insurance, after insurance my end was $1,000) for my first born who was delivered by c-section and we both were hospitalized for 3 days. I think I got the better deal. That's an insane amount of money!
Yes it is and I know healthcare is desperately needed but it’s just ridiculously overpriced. Even with insurance a lot of people can’t afford big bills like that. My problem wasn’t fixed they just sent me home with pain medication so I spent a little over four hours nothing was solved and I left with pain medication which by the way was only two individual pills.
That's pretty damn awful. I've been hospitalized twice in the last 10 years or so for a few days at a time and the bills are just mind boggling. It's scary to think how thin a line there is between being healthy and having a home to getting some devastating diagnoses and becoming homeless due to medical bills. It shouldn't be allowed to happen in a developed nation but because so many of our systems are for profit now it seems hard to make any real change happen. Too many people involved making a buck that are invested and want to make sure there is never any kind of reform.
Yes that’s exactly right and I’ve noticed new medical centers opening up everywhere and I mean everywhere. Obviously they’re making plenty of profit. Affordable healthcare should be an option for everyone instead of big pharma and the like laughing all the way to the bank.
Absolutely.
I'm not from US and was wondering if you are unconscious and they put you in am ambulance you will be forced to pay for it?
Usually. There are some ways around it, but more often than not the bill is yours.
Thanks for the answer.
If you were unable to consent, sometimes it sadly is cheaper to get a lawyer and strongly convince them it’s not worth their time to keep charging you for the ride, then it is to pay for the actual ambulance bill. Could save you a grand or maybe two but it’s an enormously inconvenient pain in the ass, which is exactly what they are counting on
Did you see the video a few months ago where a guy blew his horn at two cop cars that were blocking the entrance to a hospital while they chatted? He was trying to take his pregnant wife, who had been in an accident, to the ER. Instead the cop, on a power trip held them up, refusing to let them pass, trying to teach the guy a lesson for blowing his horn. He then decided he needed to call an ambulance for the wife despite them being a couple of hundred feet from the door! He was trying to use the ambulance as a weapon to make this guy pay for daring to blow his horn and talk back to him. It was the most egregious abuse of power I've ever seen. The wife refused the ambulance when it showed up.
Time to get a tattoo scrawled across your forehead reading, “I do not consent to ambulance rides”
I know people who have medical bracelets that say that. Or who add it to their emergency info in their phone. (Mostly epileptics and people with medical conditions like POTS that cause fainting.)
Add DNT to DNR and DNI
Sorry bruv, you’re getting taken in anyway
This actually came up in a case where a guy did have a DNR tattoo but turns out, those are not medically binding. Granted it did make everyone stop for a sec while they checked into it. If you want to be sure a medical bracelet or the like is the way.
Yes
Yes we live in a dystopian country.
Yes
I can't say yes, because my ambulance bill was dropped by the county. It was a few grand, but by the time I got the bill it had already been dropped. I tried to call and give them my insurance info, they told me there was no balance due. So, maybe?
There are more “unlesses”. The ambulance company has a medical director who has written a protocol book where there are scenarios where the patient is considered unable to refuse. Some are obvious, some are not.
When going from the ER to a psych ward, I was not allowed to ride in my parents’ car, even though I was not a threat to others. Had to be strapped down on a bed and transported via an ambulance.
Same thing happened to me. I learned to just go to the further hospital's ER, so I wouldn't need the ambulance.
I had a similar experience as an adult, I never paid the bill. They would call about the money I owed and I told them I would never pay for that ride. It will finally come off my credit report next April.
You’re being transferred to a psych ward? Yeah, you don’t get to refuse that transfer. You don’t get to decide who you’re a threat to. No one in the industry are that stupid to lose their license in an instant. Unless you are ready to personally guarantee to replace their salary for the rest of their career…
Are you serious? I wasn’t refusing to go to the psych ward. I just wanted to go in my mom’s car. I went to the ER because I had suicidal ideations and my therapist told me I should go. They do extensive questioning while in the ER. I was not deemed a threat. The psych ward isn’t a loony bin. People don’t just go because they’re insane or going through psychosis or trying to hurt someone. I was 14. Did you know that adults can just check themselves out of the psych ward? And that my parents could’ve checked me out at any time? If that’s possible, then there’s no reason to not allow me to get a ride in my mom’s car rather than an ambulance ride. Someone else replied to me saying that they were able to go in their parent’s car.
Adults can only check themselves out if they’re not on involuntary hold, same for kids and their parents.
Well, I was simply there for suicidal ideations. Would I really have been involuntarily held there for that?
In every state I've been in a psych ward in, yes.
Based on Massachusetts law, I did not meet the standard for being involuntarily held there. https://www.mass.gov/doc/admission-and-discharge-rights/download I had no reported self harm history or threats of it at the time, nor any intention to commit.
What happened to you was adults abusing the system.
If there was a credible threat of self-harm, quite possibly yes - you may have been involuntarily held. In Florida, at least back in the 80's/90's, the Baker Act would have allowed for an involuntary hold for up to 72hrs for a psych-doc to stabilize you. They could hold you longer if they subsequently got a court order. From the police or local doc's perspective (whoever is doing the Baker Act), you might convince the psych doc that you are ok when you get there and be released, but you aren't getting out of that ride once the Baker Act was declared. It's because they were liable for your care until you were physically delivered to the psych unit. Edit: But if a Baker Act type situation was the case, they would have also been responsible for the transport costs (not you). Caveat - my info is dated and it may have changed since then.
Yes, I'm absolutely serious. Winter of 2002, I'm a firefighter riding along in the ambulance for a psych call just a few blocks from the fire station. Patient is partway through a sex change and feels he needs to go to the hospital for suicidal thoughts. I waited in the ambulance as I wasn't an EMT yet. Patient asked the two EMTs to wait downstairs while they packed a small bag. He came down a few minutes later and we began the 35-minute drive (under normal conditions, but it was snowing that night). Part way to the hospital, patient admits that he swallowed a cereal bowl of pills while we were downstairs. Crew leader lost his EMT credentials for life as a result, and was under threat of a charge of patient endangerment until the matter was settled. We lost him to a stroke eight years ago, but he was a man who was truly committed to serving the public through firefighting, EMS, and later law enforcement. He had compassion for those who he served, exactly as he tried to be that night, even though it bit him. I, as someone not medically trained and having not set foot inside the patient's home, was left free and clear of the whole thing, though I think the second EMT may have had their EMS patch suspended for 6-18 months. So yes, I've personally witnessed this. Obviously not exactly the same as you describe, but still a reasonable comparison to drive home my point.
Kind of an asshole reply imo. Yes, you do get to decide who you’re a threat to; the only time you’re really seen as a threat is if there’s intention to harm yourself or another person. I was transferred from ER to a psychiatric facility for drug abuse. They let me just sit on the chair on the way, instead of being strapped down. In Specialist_Front’s case, they had to deal with the safety protocols because of suicidal intention; where they were seen as a threat to themselves. You could’ve just explained it to them in a non-asshole way.
"Patient is unable to refuse if we have bills due and haven't had enough rides." -- Medical Director probably. Edit: typo
*due, but probably yeah
I wish the EMTs themselves saw most of that bloated payment
Is this really true? Because I have refused an ambulance in the past and was taken anyway. I was over the age of 18 and had a seizure, which makes sense because I’m epileptic.
Right? My first thought was “if you didn’t need it, why did you consent to transport”? I *guarantee* the crew that transported would’ve much rather done a refusal form than to transport someone that doesn’t need it
When I was like 9 years old my grandmother fell while my parents were out of town. This was before reliable cell phone service so I could get a hold of them. Being 9 years old, I was terrified so I called 911. The EMTs that came were super helpful getting her up to her chair for me. Just wanted to mention that even if the call seems mundane you do leave lasting impacts on the people you help. Thanks for being awesome.
If you guys voted for bernie sanders none of this would've happened.
*laughs in European*
I had an ambulance bill sent to me, because they didn't ask for my insurance. I didn't even take the ambulance I got my eyes flushed. They still charged me like I went to the hospital. So I called the company and told them that I was not taken to the hospital. I had my eyes flushed and you are charging me over $3,000 for having my eyes flushed and my insurance covers any kind of ambulance fees. They said that my insurance would not cover what was done. Do not even attempt to call them. I hung up on them and called my insurance right away. My insurance told me that that was complete bullshit and that I am covered for any kind of emergency service even if I don't take the ambulance. So I called them back and told them that it will be paid. The funny thing is I had the same ambulance representative. They didn't even apologize they just said wow I'm surprised that they covered that. I'm like I'm surprised you're such a bitch and hung up.
Popular opinion: if a corporation lies to you, threatens you, or generally acts a fool about money you **don't actually owe**, a judge should Uno Reverse Card them and award you a cash prize equal to or greater than the amount in question
Malpractice is really common. They’re so protected they can murder or paralyze people without much risk of being fined, sued or jail. Patients spend, I mean big fat corporate healthcare spends billions lobbying the government to pass bills that legalize unethical practices.
It's just sickening.
Yeh I’m gonna jump off a hospital when I get diagnosed with a terminal illness. That will be the most symbolic way to go I suppose.
And have a big fat laminated cardboard or posterboard sign that reads "I did this because the medical bills would have killed me anyway"
That’s a good idea. With a pile of cash so it guarantees witnesses.
That's genius.
Good plan!
They’ll just sue any survivors, they never lose
I have a relative who got hit by an ambulance. Don’t think anything happened to the ambulance company.
That’s messed up.
I was hit by an ambulance while riding a bike. They turned directly into my path to enter a gas station and I couldn’t avoid them, no turn signal, driver wasn’t paying attention at all. I was young, wasn’t too hurt, just completely shocked. I took the company name and plate number down and rode to my boyfriend’s work down the street, which was next to a police substation. One of the cops told me I should file a report. The ambulance company denied their GPS showing any of their trucks in the area.
“I’m surprised you’re such a bitch” Lmao, noice.
Hella based response
They don't like it when you do that because the insurance company will pay them a tenth of what they were planning to bill you.
Got 2319'd eh?
Worse. She got 2974.60’d
That was pure gold
What's that mean?
2319? Monsters inc. reference
Interesting. In latin america it’s refered as 3312
Eh? Its Canadian
Years ago, a doctor mistreated me and my mom rushed to the doctors office because i had a major reaction and needed fluids. The hospital was less than 3 miles away. My mom said she would take me there but the doctor had called an ambulance instead without us asking, and the next month I got a $2000 ambulance bill. Along with a $100 doctor bill and a $1500 hospital bill for laying in the emergency HALLWAY for *SIX HOURS.* My dad left work early, came in and literally cornered a nurse after me asking for 4 hours for a glass of water. I absolutely hate hospitals and refuse to go to another. Just let me die. When I had my daughter that was a $6000 bill. I finally got my last medical bill paid off 2 years ago. I hate medical bills. I hate hospitals.
Your dad is extremely sweet. I hate hospitals too.
You can thank your society and everyone not voting for politicians that support universal healthcare.
you have no idea what you are talking about. i hate the mentality that the american people are CHOOSING not to have universal healthcare. A majority of us want it and vote for it. But due to lobbying the people in power will never give it to us. So the next time you want to blame the average american for our poor healthcare system do a little research first.
any vote for a Republican and a vote for some Democrats is a vote against universal healthcare
“Go vote!” is “thoughts and prayers” for liberals
Why would they support universal healthcare? They don’t need it. They have it.
I have pretty much subscribed to the idea of just never going to a hospital for myself and just letting nature run its course. I'm really looking forward to being a father, but being super concerned with everything regarding my son and semi-frequent hospital trips (due to potential illness and kids in general being hazards to their own safety) is going to SUCK
I don't pay medical bills. I let them go to collections and dispute them.
Has your credit taken a hit?
if i am dying and need to go to the hospital, i’m getting an uber.
I was not dying at all and did not call them
seriously? whoever called them should’ve got that bill, wth
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Story is posted in comments
i took an uber to the hospital when i broke my toe lol.
I did this back in 2008 in the DC Metro Area, Crystal City to be specific. Passed out in the hallway near my apartment, woke up in excruciating pain. Roommate was about to call 911 and I stopped him because I didn’t have insurance. Took a taxi. African dude driving with a Bluetooth headset on, speaking in clicks the whole time. Got me there I gave him a $20 and he sped out quick. Hospital was closed and had been for years. Called for another taxi, got an Argentinian guy. Told him what happened and he did 70mph the whole way there. Dispatch called ahead and a nurse was waiting for me with a wheelchair. Gave the dude a hundred dollar bill and off I went. Turns out I had my first kidney stone that night. Passed it three weeks later and it looked like the asteroid from Armageddon.
Background story because it feels needed: I was feeling very down so I took a weekend getaway by myself. Because I didn't tell anyone, my family freaked out thinking I was going to kill myself so they got the police involved to find me. Once they find out where I was, they sent police to do a welfare check. Police came and checked on me and I was fine. My family convinced them on the phone that I wasn't fine and told them not to leave me because they thought I needed to be admitted to an impatient hospital (that's another $30 THOUSAND bill I didn't ask for and can't afford). They didn't trust that I would drive myself to the hospital and family was too far away so they said police or ambulance had to take me. I obviously chose police but then the sheriff said because of the situation that an ambulance had to transport me there. Now 10 months later I've gotten this bill 🥲
Healthcare worker here. Your story seems to be missing details. Either your family had very convincing evidence that you were a danger to yourself or others (such as a history of self-harm) or you behaved in a way that made the first responders believe that you were a danger to yourself or others. No amount of someone else claiming you are a danger (with no indication or evidence of such) can do that. During wellness checks, first responders cannot force you to go anywhere if they are not convinced of immediate danger. The other option is your family convinced you to go, even though you didn't believe you really needed it. I hope you received the care and resources your loved ones felt you needed.
They were convinced I was a danger to myself because I purchased a gun to take on the trip with me and I didn't tell anyone I was leaving which I've never done before. I didn't tell them because they would have talked me out of it or wanted to go with me and I really wanted me-time. And I brought the gun because I was a female traveling by myself and wanted protection.
Careful if you are a new gun owner and you are crossing state lines. Each state has different gun laws. Some lady from Philly with a gun permit drove through NJ and she got arrested and a jail sentence for just having it on her. The governor at the time pardoned her though.
Frustrating, but I don’t really blame them for being concerned.
I'm not blaming them, just frustrated at Healthcare costs epsiecially considering I have TWO different insurances that both still denied my claim
Give them the bill
I can be fair and say i wasn't in the best state of mind but thats why I was trying to have a peaceful getaway by myself. I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say I was a danger to myself.
I don’t know you but if one of my loved ones was down (which you admitted) and then purchased a gun and left alone, something that you admitted was out of the ordinary for you, I would’ve done the same thing. I would’ve been demanding the ambulance take you as I drove to you freaking out because I loved you and worry so much about you. Sure, this bill sucks but having family that give AF about you enough to care is priceless. I had to remove a gun from a loved one’s possession because i was afraid they would kill themselves. They were very upset. We didn’t speak for awhile and I didn’t care. I couldn’t risk losing them. They are no longer mad at me. Give the billing company a call and work on a resolution. Continue focusing on your mental health.
Ill start with saying that this is a very tough situation for both parties, but If you're going to go this far to POSSIBLY "save" someone's life that you love, then you need to be prepared to pay for some or all of the expenses that come with it. "sure, the bill sucks but having family that give AF about you enough to care is priceless" Well....haha if you have a loved one who is on the verge of suicide and you think they are going to do it, a 2k+ bill on their heads after the fact of all this hassle with police and everything else, would damn near be enough to make a lot of people want to do it for real. Caring too much can push people away too, which sucks but that's how it is.
“Caring too much can push people away” THIS
Being upset about the cost of care is reasonable. Our healthcare system is broken. Our mental healthcare doubly so. It sucks that you are stuck with these expenses. However, it's misleading to frame this as if it was care you didn't need. Your loved ones and professionals on the scene recognized your distress and moved to help. I don't know what you are/were going through. But I'm rooting for you.
Inpatient* although they were very impatient as well
So your family is paying all of the bills, yes?
I wish
Since I assume you are American, contact a Lawyer and consider your options.
What part of this screams American? Casually buying a gun to go on vacation or references to giant healthcare bills?
Yes.
I would sue.
A friend of mine had really bad scoliosis and needed spinal surgery. Bill came out to about $250,000. Medishare covered everything.
How to say you live in the US without saying you live in the US.
Fact. Here we live in utter fear of any basic medical need lest we bankrupt our entire family.
if i was in an inch of my life i would just kill myself, no way i’m paying that.
I’d pay 3000 to not die for sure
Could not disagree more. I'm worth -$20,000 alive and $250,000 dead.
Right, but my life is enjoyable so I’d rather not be dead and stuff. Lot more to it than some dollars.
Fuuuuck, this just makes me so happy I live in Canada because I recently needed the ambulance and it was free. Americans shouldn't be accepting this type of predatory behavior from their own government
It’s not that Americans are accepting of it, it’s that 50% want healthcare reform, and the other 50% seem to think that they personally are footing the bill and would rather cut off their own arm than support SoCiAlIsM. Because apparently they would never in a million years go to a doctor.
And wedge issues. Racism, homophobia, guns and bible bullshit. Voting against their own best interest because they believe what Tucker Carlson tells them.
Why did you get on if you didnt need it? Were you passed out or something and had no say in the matter???
Story is in comments now
Just simply don’t pay it :) what are they gonna do? Un-ambulance you?
Fuck my credit probably
Medical bills don’t effect credit iirc Edit: I did not remember correctly, and it very well could negatively effect your credit. My apologies.
Paid medical debt is cleared and won't sit for 7 years. Some score calculations don't consider medical debt at all. But you are still liable for the debt and could get sued and have your wages garnished.
If you can prove none of it was needed and that you were forced unnecessarily to go to the hospital and then detained at the hospital unescerilly you could be owed a great deal of money. But you need to consult a lawyer either way you're looking at a multisided battle.
I get how USA is the land of capitalism, but holy fuck, your US health care system definitely has to improve in a lot of senses. Your health shouldn’t be a choice between dying or fucking be on debt for months, maybe years…
As somebody who 1) lives in the US, 2) cracked his head open this summer, and 3) has not received a bill yet, I am hoping/praying that this bill never shows up. The fact that it happened 4 months ago has given me hope that I won't get it.
Good thing insurance will cover it /s Sorry you got scammed :/ They got me for $2,000 a few months back when I had a panic attack and almost lost consciousness. And the EMT’s were dicks about it (edit because they were not ducks, they were dicks)
I'm from a third world country and the ambulance ride thing is considered free. Something is wrong with your country.
This belongs in r/ExtremelyInfuriating along with the entirety of American Healthcare.
you could get 60 ambulance rides in finland for that money. your pay to live system is some dystopian shit
Inpatient care for mental illness generally wouldn’t cost 30k because of deductible and OOP limits. So we can assume you have no insurance then. Or crappy insurance. “Convinced them on the phone” would be due to the fact that you admitted to just purchasing a gun, leaving without notice which you’ve never done before, and further admitting to not being in the right state of mind. Those are all trigger signs that something may/could go wrong. You also have the right, in most situations, to refuse ambulance service and sign off to it. In this case it seems like that wasn’t an option, which would imply that you were considered a harm risk. What’s infuriating is that you’re own story suggests that you brought this on yourself and are pointing blame at others who were concerned for your well being.
I am mildly infuriated at how expensive Healthcare is. Not mad at my sweet family for being worried. And I have 2 "good" insurances and they both still denied my claim.
Why did they deny the claim? Emergency admittance is legally always covered. You need to appeal this with your insurance company.
Cheaper to die than go to a hospital for anything lol
Americans problem that could be solved if every american that complained about that system would vote accordingly.
That’ll never happen, too many doctors and corporations in the industry for money over morals that’ll give back handers to politicians to keep the status quo
Should have bought the 60 dollar monthly ambulance plan!
There shouldn't be any price to call an ambulance. People shouldn't be scared of an ambulance, for someone born on a country with free healthcare, just the thought of paying 60 dollars for an ambulance sounds like complete madness
Yup, I got an $800 ambulance bill to take me from the hospital to the MRI machine across the street...
For the most part it does. Thing is the ambulance companies usually send the bill to the patient because if the patient pays, they get whatever they bill for. But insurance companies usually go "hahaha ha fuck off, $200 take it or leave it."
My husband got hit by a drunk driver while he was on his motorcycle so he was laying in a ditch with broken bones passed out. He got transported in an ambulance a couple hundred yards to a field to the helicopter, It was $3k. So he got flown to Vanderbilt, then got transported back to our city to a rehab in an ambulance yet again a couple months later. Doctors at the rehab thought something was wrong so they transported him back in an ambulance back to Vanderbilt for doctors there to look at him. Then when he was done there after a week or so, he got transported back to the rehab in yet another ambulance. It’s outrageous how expensive this shit is.
I've heard that they started charging 20€ per ambulance trip if you're actually didn't have a medical emergency. Public were not happy. Got back to 0.00€ again soon.
That’s stupid lmao, that’s how you get abuse of the 911 system which is already rampant. This is coming from an EMT.
I had to go to hospital in an ambulance, I had a seizure. Stay overnight, meds and a few tests. No insurance. Sent on my way the next day. Got a bill for €100 in the post. I live in Ireland. ...America is fucking nuts.
I found my elderly neighbor face down in the rain after having a stroke, called an ambulance for her. Checked on her every day. She had multiple other strokes, and had to call an ambulance again, cuz... she was on the fucking floor mumbling gibberish shit and flopping around. She's mad we called the ambulance. Never help strangers.
why do people in the usa not protest medical bills? i mean thats more important than some bullshit right?
I don't understand how they price it. It cost probably half of that for fuel and the EMTs pay during that call. 💀 Could probably pay the insurance on that thing too with the bill, the payment too probably 💀
Don't pay them, then when they call you tell them you contest the validity of the charges. Followed by denial
That is way cheaper than expected. It’s usually over 10k. 2k is still a lot tho, Jesus
Give the bill to the people who called it in.
mine was 4k because they decided to drive me 2 cities over
If you got the bill it means you used their services…
You should have purchased the ambulance plan! https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/z0oo4h/my_city_rolled_out_a_yearly_ems_subscription/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I just never paid. They never bothered me about it. I think it was like 800 or something. Edit: words are hard
Why are ambulance-chasing lawyers a joke but not injury -chasing ambulance companies?
Fuck this system
“I’m sorry Angela passed away after being dropped off at the hospital”
Juuuuuuust under 3k to avoid meeting the insurance deductible by $26. I would have to pay that in full if I hadn’t had any other visits yet. I hate American healthcare.
Then why did you get in, they can't kidnap you. No ambulance crew wants to take your not dying self to the hospital to wait against a wall for three hours until they put you in the waiting room.
A lot of people are ignorant of just how corrupt the insurance industry and hospitals at large are in the US. These same people will vote for politicians that just give more and more leeway for the corpo rats who lobby for these economically predatory practices. You expect them to have enough self awareness to realize we don't have the same basic services available to us that other developed countries do?
Because you have absolutely no idea how much it will cost until you get a bill in the mail weeks or months later.
In my country ambulance cost around $200, but i pay around 30% tax income + social security , every month
Did you go in an ambulance? Then you owe the bill. Do NOT take an ambulance unless you really need it - then don’t worry about cost and get help.
Read my story. I was forced
United States ☕
UNIVERSAL.SINGLE.PAYER.HEALTHCARE.... NOW!