I drove the two miles in the rain down the dirt road to my rusty old mailbox today and tore open an envelope from some attorney who says that he's going to sue me for an old medical bill from June. AMR, the ambulance company (and the largest emergency provider in the nation), contends that I owe them about nine hundred smackers. Faithful readers will remember that June was the heart attack. Now I pretty much stay on top of all of my medical bills, and thank god for my insurer, Health Net, who have been wonderful, but something about this one sticks in my craw.
I had a mild heart attack in June and drove myself to Fallbrook Hospital after I gassed up the van. I was whisked in and checked out in the ER and after confirmation that took about a day, they decided to send me to La Jolla to Scripps so that I could visit the cath lab. About 40 minutes away. American Medical Response sent three people for this trip including a nurse and charged me over $4500.00. And I was fully dressed and conscious and in no way in harms way at this point. My insurer said it was exorbitant and usurious and that they would cover around $3700.00. Said not to pay - these things get written down. But it didn't and they are now after my ass. The insurer now throws their hands up in the air.
We need to have medical advocates in this country where patients can go to consult and get the real skinny on how to operate in the legal/medical minefield. If I would have known the cost of this service, I would have taken a limo and drank Perriet Jouet the whole way down out of my wife's slipper. They don't tell you what things will cost, they just ram it down your throat. They have a total monopoly in my area and can pretty much charge whatever they want to. I could pay it on principle but I definitely feel hosed by this company. A company that has been investigated for Medicare fraud (they settled with the Feds in 2002), illegal inducements, civil fraud, violating the False Claims Act and illegally monitoring their own employees amongst other things. I hope that an anti-trust investigation is also coming down the pike.
4 comments:
To me Michael Moore is a true American. His documentary Sicko exposes the fradulent medical system in the U.S.
If the rest of the modern World can have socialized medicene.
Not asking to drop the insurance system we have, but we need a system that is not engineered by greedy corporate profits.
should have read; if the rest of the modern World can have socialized medicene, why can't we???
Robert... don't pay it!! They should be settling for what your insurance paid... if they persist in bothering you, send them to your insurance company.
Hey, if you can't pay for ambulances then don't get sick.
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