Earlier this year, a friend of mine was rushed to Harborview Hospital. To protect his anonymity, and for the sake of clarity, let’s call my friend ‘Doug Thatcher Tha Booty Snatcher’.
Now, the reason Doug was rushed to the hospital is not important, however, the method in which he was rushed is notable.
You see, Doug is a resident of Bainbridge Island … an island which, despite boasting a population of 20,000 people, does not have a hospital. At least not one with a fully tricked out emergency room.
This being the case, when the people of Bainbridge need emergency medical care, they generally have one of two options:
1) A 45 minute ambulance ride to Bremerton
2) A 10 minute helicopter flight to Seattle
In Doug’s case, paramedics decided that he should go to Harborview, and within minutes, a helicopter landed nearby, picked him up, and made a bee-line for Downtown Seattle.
Well, not really a bee-line. According to Doug, helicopters, even medical helicopters are instructed to fly along the shoreline of Bainbridge Island, and cross the Puget Sound at its narrowest point … directly across from Discovery Park in Magnolia, instead of over the wider Elliott Bay. This way, if the helicopter loses power, chances are greater that it will autorotate down to terra firma instead of plunking down in liquid unfirma like some heavenly turd.
Anyway, Doug, who was conscious for the trip, recalled the journey … flying over the water, banking over the ferry terminal, and skimming the roofs of downtown skyscrapers, before finally touching down at the Harborview Helipad.
When they arrived at the hospital, Doug expected to be whisked into the Emergency Room post-haste. After all, time was of the essence. That is why he took a helicopter to the mainland instead of a ferry like the unwashed-yet-healthy masses below.
He wasn’t rushed inside, though.
Instead, Doug waited on the helipad, about a hundred yards from the ER entrance.
“What’s going on?”, Doug asked the helicopter paramedic.
“Oh, I’m sorry, we’re not allowed to take you to the hospital. Only the ambulance company that serves the helipad can actually take you inside. Per union rules, they have to get a cut of every trip we make to Harborview, and they get that cut by having the exclusive contract to take you through the doors.”
“I don’t need an ambulance,” Doug protested, “I can see the entrance! It’s right there. I’ll just walk to it.”
“I know this whole thing is ridiculous,” replied the paramedic, “but our hands are tied.”
So, Doug waited.
Eventually, the ambulance showed up, and they moved Doug out of the helicopter’s gurney, onto their gurney, and pushed him on the 20 second journey to Harborview, where he stayed for about a day.
Fast forward a couple of months, and Doug finally received his medical bills, including the bill from the ambulance company (AMR) with the exclusive contract.
The charge?
$930.
For a 100′ gurney push.
Doug is disputing the bill.
After hearing his story, I decided to do a little research of my own, and what do you know, Doug’s not alone.
http://www.king5.com/news/consumer/60041047.html
It seems this ruse has been going on for some time, and our public hospital, Harborview, is just fine with it. Whether public or private, the priorities of our nation’s hospitals are always the same.
Now, before you get too angry about all of this, I would like to remind all of you that, even though the State is allowing ill patients to sit on a helipad just so AMR can stick their hand in the monetary cookie jar, it did recently solve the gay marriage crisis, and it also solved the wealthy-flimmakers-paying-taxes plight. It’s easy to see why this situation has evaded legislative oversight.
If you ask me, an extra thousand bucks on a hospital bill is a small price to pay for living in such a well-governed state.
Enjoy.
The king5 story indicates the union contract isn’t between the hospital and AMR. It is between AMR and the helicopter company. If that is the case, I don’t think the hospital has any responsibility for the fees charged by entities that transport patients to the hospital. The problem is the union contract, not the hospital. That union should be fired.
“The insurance company already settled everything was done, and now the $800 that would have been paid by the insurance company is now going to be paid by me,” said Russell.
AMR declined an on-camera interview, but says it charges a base service rate with a one mile minimum for the trip.
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The Berendas are asking AMR to do two things: lower the helipad service charge for shorter trips and do a better job billing customers.
“We had no clue, none whatsoever, but the policies need to change. these ambulance companies, it’s outrageous for 800 bucks,” said Dawn.
After we alerted AMR about the Berenda’s story, the company went back to the insurance company and asked them to accept the claim. They promised to follow-up through the process. And we will too.
Yeah completely the union at fault for the minimum 1 mile cost and the insurance company rejecting the claim.
Just how much do you think these guys are making? $100? $200? $300 an hour? How much money are the guys pushing the gurney making? http://www.salarylist.com/company/American-Medical-Response-Salary.htm Holy shit! AMR was paying a Paramedic under $26K in 2007. I bet now they make a good $500K a year with that union contract and all!
Unions.
And people wonder why are health care costs are so high… Sigh.
Rex: This is off-topic, but though you might be interested in reading:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/12/family-of-west-point-graduate-shot-to-de
While a good part of the point here is the cost rendered out to the patients and insurance companies, the other point is that if it’s an emergency enough to helicopter them to the hospital, how is it reasonable to make everyone wait for the unionized exclusive transport to take it’s sweet ass time to get them off the helicopter and in to the ER that’s only 100 feet away.
If they were Johnny on the spot and waiting at the door for the helicopter to land and were specially trained to deal with dangerous helicopter situations, like watching out for the rotors that are still spinning, this might be a slightly different story. As it is, though, it sounds like they are often in zero hurry to get a patient off the helicopter and in to the ER. I mean, why would you be if your company had exclusive rights and your job is union backed.
Emergency response can be expensive, and it can be justified when it’s treated as an emergency. If they have a full time person stationed at the helicopter pad door waiting with a gurney 24/7, in case a transport comes in that wasn’t able to radio ahead (radios break, it happens), then I think you could justify charging $800 or whatever for that short trip. It’s not the trip you’re paying for at that point, it’s the 24/7 idle time for the minute-man at the door. Same as the Ambulance trip, a small portion of what’s paid to the Ambulance company covers the trip itself, the rest of it covers the idle time while they’re on the ready, waiting for the call to pick up your broken ass. That’s a justifiable business expense to pass on to a customer/patient/insurance. Obvious to us, that’s not the way it appears to work in this case.