Ambulance Refused to Transport Me, Then Billed Me
My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: kentucky. i called ambulance. before the guy got out of the car, he asks me are you sure you want to go. you'll be sitting in the waiting room all night. the other guy asks me who's going to take you home if we take you. they refused.
they did not take my temp, bp, nothing. told me to take some ibuprofen. the one guy was looking all over my house talking about my antiques. i'm with the VA. the VA said they never saw this before, being charged for a transport that i was not transported. for that reason they may not pay it. the ambulance tells me no matter what transpired, if they don't pay it, they're coming to me.
i don't think anybody should pay it because those guys didn't do anything. the VA says they can't tell you what medications to take because they don't know your medical history. no, they don't. that's a VERY good point. i should have been under the care of a doctor, but they wouldn't take me. i own a home here, but i'm a resident of another state. i understand in this state, they can get a judgement, put a lien on your home, on your car, on your bank account.
i'm on social security. they can't touch that. i don't want it to get to that point. it's for 400. the ambulance says they cannot tell me what those guys put down for the trip but they want me to pay it. THEN i get a notice that if i mail them a copy of my drivers license, they will give me a copy of the report. NO. hipaa? NO. my information going thru who knows whose hands. absolutely not. i sent two certified letters and the first one never got there. lost in the mail. they received the 2nd one. the VA has not declined it, but they haven't approved it, but they still go at me. the VA is my insurance.
I'm a Vietnam Era Veteran. what should i do? I think this is unfair. i think those guys discussed this before they came here. the guy on the passenger side wasn't even out of the vehicle when he asked me if i was sure i wanted to go. it wasn't any surprise to the driver. what are my options? please and thank you.
Re: Ambulance Refused to Transport Me. Charged Me
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Lynn6042
what are my options? please and thank you.
Until the ambulance company sues you and gets a judgment against you all it can do is spit out letters to you and call you to try to collect and report their claim of the debt to the credit bureaus. You have the option to simply refuse to pay and make the company sue you over it. If you get sued then you can show up and defend against the claim and let the court decide if in fact you owe for the service. The thing is, though, you were apparently the one who called the ambulance to come out in the first place. So the company did respond to the call, which does cost it something. What transpired once the crew got there would then be important to how a court may decide whether you owe the company and how much.
Re: Ambulance Refused to Transport Me. Charged Me
Was this a fee for a transport? Or, was it a fee for EMS response? Some jurisdictions in some states have begun imposing fees for medical aid calls even when a subject is not transported. $400 sounds waaaay low for an ambulance transport (unless it's a co-pay) and a bit on the high side of those EMS response fees, but, it might be worth looking to see which it might be.
Re: Ambulance Refused to Transport Me. Charged Me
What they want you to do is pass it along to your insurer. However, if you don't have coverage, you often find that the demands of payment tend to go away.
Re: Ambulance Refused to Transport Me. Charged Me
That's what tends to happen with the response fees out here. Even the medical rides. Last summer one of my sons had to be airlifted after a collision and the bill was $34,000! They settled for what his insurance company agreed to pay and said they would write the rest off. I suspect that happens a lot.