HOW TO DEAL WITH AMBULANCE BILL AFTER BEING INJURED IN ACCIDENT
How quickly an ambulance arrives on the scene can spell the difference life and death, yet for those facing a medical emergency a speedy trip to the ER often leads to a surprise, and shockingly high, bill. This was the subject of a recent online CBS news article. Our personal injury lawyers deal with ambulance bills every days.
In roughly half of ambulance trips, the service is out of network and not covered by insurance, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund. The federal No Surprises Act protects people from many types of out-of-network health care bills, including unexpected charges for ER services, air ambulances and most out-of-network care at in-network facilities. Yet that law, passed by Congress in late 2020, doesn’t address ground ambulances, an industry in which so-called balance billing — in which patients are charged the difference between the in-network and out-of-network rate — is the prevailing practice.
Many communities contract EMT services from one provider, and unless it has an agreement with a person’s insurer, the service would be 100% out of network. Additionally, patients transported from one hospital to another are basically at the mercy of medical staff, who are not necessarily focused on what is covered by insurance.
Asked how to avoid such a scenario, the report states that “it may not be possible. If you call 911, they send who is available.” Indeed, they advise that people get get the emergency care they need and then deal with the bills.
Get an itemized ambulance bill, then negotiate
But when consumers do get hit with an exorbitant ambulance bill, there are several steps people should take, the article suggests.
- Get an itemized bill. That’s essential for identifying and potentially challenging individual charges. Towns typically negotiate mileage rates, and if you find a community two miles down the road with a lower rate, you can suggest paying that rate instead.
- Negotiate. It can be hard to get patients to pay for ambulance services, so if a person is willing to cover even a portion, some companies are willing to bargain. Talk about your financial situation, tell them, ‘I’m on this kind of budget, that I’ve been out of work X number of days’. Ambulance providers are often willing to cut a deal, such as 40% off in a person pays by the end of the day.
- Make sure the bill went through insurance. Even out-of-network, insurance plans would pay a portion akin to a negotiated rate, so make sure that has occurred. In the course of an emergency, sometimes the ambulance doesn’t get your insurance or the hospital is not forthcoming, so you want to verify that the bill has been run through insurance. Sometimes the ambulance bills you the very next day, so verify that this is the final bill.
- Go back to your insurance company and ask them to pay more. Then you can tell the ambulance company you are trying to get them more money.