How much do you charge?

[Richard B the EMT]

our service charges about 160 dollars 'flag fall for the first 16km and then so much per km after to a max of about 2500 dollars

there is no charge for a non transport, pensioner o those covered by health insurance

also there is no charge for the different types of jobs we do and no charge for the equipment or drugs used

stay safe

No charge for those covered by health insurance? Wow. I would think that getting paid from third party insurers, like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal (in California) and others, even though it may not be fully what the EMS agency is billing for, is always something of a "given" to pay for ambulance transportation and patient care.

[craig]

sorry to mislead you the health insurance does get charged for the transport, not the patient

bear in mind that our service has 750 ambulances and have about 450 of them on road each day.

this does not include patient transport units, rapid responders or helos

stay safe

[Acosell]

BLS Transport - $45

ALS Transport - $45

Helicopter Transport - $45

Inter Facility Transfer - $0

Public health care pays for the rest.

[drgiggles]

In New Brunswick it use to cost $ 60 for vol, 120 Paid services.But after Apr 1,05 the NB government made all ambulance rides free.

[Alcomedicism]

ALS Ambulance Ride: $525 dollars.

3 Mile ride: $25.50 dollars

ECG Monitoring: $30 dollars

Pulse Oximetry: $30 dollars

ALS Disposable Latex gloves: $35 dollars

Oxygen via nasal cannula: $35 dollars

Knowing that your still alive after being transported by your local medics: priceless

There some things in life money cant buy, but for everything else there's MasterCard.

Hehe.

-Dix

[buckeyedoc]

Our service bills as follows:

$850 for ALS (paramedic) plus the maximum per mile charge allowed by Medicare (not sure what that is)

$750 for ALS (Intermediate) plus mileage

$650 for BLS (with O2)

$600 for BLS (no O2)

We have several frequent flyers who never really need a medic (geez, that doesn't happen does it). We are implementing a clause that if you call the squad X amount of times in a given time frame, we charge $150 for the call.

[Richard B the EMT]

As most of you longtimers know, I was hospitalized on May 12, 2005, for 8 days, and one of my station's Paramedic teams transported me to an out of local area hospital.

The bill came a month ago (August), so I don't recall the dollar amount billed me, but suffice to say, my 3rd party medical insurer is going to pay for the transport, oxygen, and KVO IV start-up I got enroute.

As a mention regarding billing, for those services that will mail a bill to the patient's family, instead of demanding "cash before carry" (now watch how that line gets kicked around!), the FDNY EMS actually has instructions on the bill as to how to fill out the bill and send back, to allow the insurer and the department to talk to each other, so the FDNY can get paid, and not violate patient confidentiality. Does your agency do similar?

[mizzoumedic74]

On average, and ALS emergency 1 call generates a $900 - $1,100 charge. That means, ALS care and no more than 2 drugs used. ALS emergency 2 charge is between $1,200 and $1,350 which covers more than 2 drugs used and/or critical care interventions, i.e. surgical cric.

There are limitations, however to this. On a weekly basis, our service bills between $20,00 - $40,000. We only recover approx. 40% of that. Due to either no insurance or medicare only paying what it will allow.

Where we make the money is on Routine or Long Distance Transports. This carries a base of $565 for ALS care and $425 for BLS care. Plus, $11 per mile.

[buckeyedoc]

After reading this post (and posting), I went to our billing dept. and asked what the collection rate was. The Supervisor (and a friend of mine) said that they have about an 88-90% collection rate. That is well above average, but we have some great billing clerks. Not to mention that we have 8 hours of paperwork training every 6 months. Paperwork issues can get you placed on administrative leave or even terminated (after quite a few). They are sticklers on paperwork. It's a great team effort.

[Dustdevil]

...they have about an 88-90% collection rate.

:shock: Holy crap! Whoever your billing manager is should either:

1. Write a book

2. Go on the lecture circuit

3. Send out resumes, because he/she could probably get hired anywhere!

Seriously. No BS!

Is that all direct collections, or does that include like the city or county paying for anything not collected after a certain amount of time?