Two articles caught my eye this week having to do with catching up with the rising costs of running an ambulance service — either public service or private, commercial service.

The first article has to do with one region turning to more strict collections policies regarding unpaid ambulance billing. I know that many areas are very relaxed in their collection practices. These services believe that people shouldn’t be hounded to pay their medical bills in the light that if they could afford to pay, they would.

However, I know that this is not always the case. Many times, these bill dodgers have been sent a check in their name for the bill from their ambulance service and then are supposed to forward the money plus any remaining balance to the ambulance or fire company who performed the transport. For some people, this is apparently a license to steal from their insurance, their community, and their local ambulance service.

The second article demonstrates another tactic for raising funds when people won’t or can’t pay, raise prices on those who can pay! This is what I meant in the previous paragraph when I said the non-payers steal from their communities. The costs have to get picked up by somebody. That left over money comes from the whole region in the form of higher taxes, higher transport fees, and sometimes less ambulance coverage.

The cause of lack of adequate funding, lack of payment, poor coverage is primarily due to a couple of factors. Overuse of the EMS system for primary care medical problems is one aspect. Another is the increasing high price of diesel fuel. As both of these issues seem to be too hard for our government to handle, plan an even earlier collapse of our EMS system in some areas as the volunteer pools continue to shrink and more an more regions try to come up with ways to put paid ambulance services in place without enough call volume and tax base support to pull it off!

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