I am warning you in advance that this is going to sound stupid and frustrating, because it is.
My roommate is a guy I’ve known a long time, who I’m very close to, but he has certain issues. He is pretty sick; his breathing is kind of wheezy sounding, and he says he feels like he can’t get enough air.
There is a hospital three blocks away. I told him hours ago that he should go to emergency and get checked out. (He has no job or income, but I’m just about certain that I signed him up for Obamacare a year or so ago.)
He won’t go, and he won’t say why. Perhaps he’s holding out for me to offer to go with him, but I won’t. He has literally zero patience, and is absolutely unable to wait anywhere for anything. He always ends up causing a scene and I just won’t do it.
SO: If he really does have pneumonia or something and I end up having to call an ambulance, will I be liable for thousands of dollars? I hate to sound like a hardass, but my income is quite meager and I just don’t know what to do.
AFAIK the person who needs the medical assistance would get the bill. I’ve called 911 dozens of times in my life (no joke) and it never even occurred to me that I might get billed. A couple of times the ambulance showed up and made a decision not to transport the person, but still I never heard anything further. Certainly no bills.
Repeating what everybody else had said. In an emergency, the ambulance will transport a patient without regard to ability to pay. They will send a bill to the patient later.
Some communities have a volunteer ambulance service that will provide free or reduced fee services. Otherwise the amount that the patient pays would depend on health insurance coverage. We keep stickers with the number of our volunteer ambulance company on our phones. They don’t have a webpage but here’s another outfit that seems to operate in a similar way: http://whitestoneambulance.com/
And an article about another volunteer ambulance corps
I to have called 911 countless times. Of course the person that calls doesn’t get billed for it, that wouldn’t make sense. The person get transported…that’s between them and their insurance. However, I believe (but could be wrong here) they don’t get charged, at least not for a transport, at least not with city provided EMTs, if they decline to be transported. Again, for example, if I pass out and wake back up with EMTs standing over me, tell them I’m fine and they do a once over and walk out after declining, they really can’t bill me for a service I didn’t request. In the case where this happened last week, they didn’t even know who (me) called them, no way they could bill me for it.
On the off chance it’s being confused, calling 911 and requesting police help or having burglar alarms will typical get you a bill after X amount of false alarms.
Two questions for you:
1)Is your roommate willing to go to the hospital? If it’s only three blocks, you could certainty drive him. Even Uber would be cheaper (hell, he could probably walk it if you went with him).
2)Again, if he’s willing to go, it might be worth a call into his insurance company/ACA to see if it’s cheaper to have 911 or a private transport company come and get him. Could be the difference between $300 and $1000.
Also, while 99% of the time they say ‘why don’t you come in’, it might be worth checking out his insurance to see if they do video chat with a nurse. If not, at the very least, it you really think it’s just phenomena, he could probably get away with urgent care, that’s considerably cheaper, though they might not be thrilled with an ambulance pulling up.
An ambulance is not the only way to get to a hospital three blocks away, unless the patient requires special handling by trained staff to be moved safely, or life-saving emergency treatment en route. If you “think you have pneumonia”, a taxi will cost five or ten bucks, against several thousand for an ambulance call. If the patient can walk to the curb, call a cab, or find a neighbor who will drive you.
Ambulances are very very very very expensive. You are not always doing someone a favor by calling an ambulance for someone. If they get in, they can face huge bills in the near future, literally thousands of dollars.
One data point I personally witnessed 2 was ago at the bar…
A guy fell off his stool (not sure if by drunkeness or other reasons) and smacked his head pretty good. Bartender called 911 and emts showed up. After a quick q and a between tmem and the dude, they realized he was loopy and needed to go to the hospital. But he kept refusing to go. Utill the emt declared that it was illegal (in ca) for an emt to not transport a person deemed by said emt to need it. And refusal would force said emt to call the police.
Since we’re talking about breathing, though, and a guy who is apparently going to wait until he turns blue, ambulances have albuterol, epinephrine, and oxygen onboard. When our son was four and had an attack of croup, and was gasping for breath so hard that his face and chest were covered with petechiae. Anyway, the ambulance got there in like, two minutes, and thank goodness, because his pulse ox was 79%. They gave him inhaled steroids and oxygen, and got him up to 98% in about 60 seconds. If we’d tried to drive him to the hospital ourselves, the ten minutes it would have taken would mean 10 minutes of gasping, and a pulse ox of 79% or less.
So it’s not just a matter of how fast the ambulance can get you there, but that the EMTs can treat you and stabilize you before transport.
Years ago, when I briefly worked as a bartender, a guy had an epileptic seizure in my bar. I was fucking 22 years old and didn’t know what to do, so I called an ambulance, and they came and took him away. Next time I saw the guy, he was royally pissed off and in my face about calling an ambulance, and he had to pay for it.
Okay, fuck you, next time I’ll just let you die on the floor (not).
Back at the beginning of the month, I thought kaylasmom might have pneumonia on the strength of her complaints of shortness of breath, and a rattling noise in her lungs.
I told this story in the mini-rants thread. Turned out to be congestive heart failure.
Is your roommate running a fever? Is he diabetic, or otherwise afflicted with a condition that may lead to coronary artery disease? You really ought to get him some medical attention, even if it’s nothing more than an evaluation by some EMT’s. He can’t be compelled to ride the ambulance, as long as he’s capable of communcating his wishes (whether he rides or not may have no bearing on whether he gets a bill, though).
In some communities, public utilities often offer, for a nominal monthly fee, a subscription to the fire department’s paramedic services, that shield the consumer from a bill for FD paramedics’ calls.
After a heart attack I was told my catheterization/stent would be done at a hospital 5 miles away. I wanted to get dressed and drive, but the cardiologist said that was nuts, they had an ambulance ready to take me.
I called my insurer and found out they would only cover ambulance transport done by the company near my home; 40 miles away, otherwise I’d be responsible for the bill.
I called the ambulance company and they came. I saved a big bill Using an ambulance that drove 40 miles each way to transport me rather than using one that was sitting right where I was.
Agree with everyone else. But even if I were to think that I may get billed, I’d be concerned with the potential liability for not calling. Not only that, calling is the right thing to do.
