The ambulance company that I work for is currently under some heavy fire due to a recent rate increase request. Now I’ll be honest, it’s no small increase. I can understand peoples frustration when they hear that expensive ambulance rides are about to become more expensive. What they don’t understand, is that’s healthcare in America. At least until we come up with some real solutions.
EMS and the entire healthcare industry have been taking hits from non-payers and government programs for quite some time now. In many cases healthcare providers are getting paid by Medicare and Medicaid a measly 14 cents on the dollar. That’s insane, but it’s reality. No other industry in the world operates like that. Ford isn’t going to give you a free car if you cant pay and Chevron isn’t going to give you free gas.
Unfortunately, the people that end up paying for lost revenue are the ones that actually do pay their bills. This is usually the private insurance companies. So as the number of non-payers and government-payers goes up, so does the price. This is called cost-shifting and it sucks. But do we blame the ambulance services or the broken system? The old saying “Don’t hate the playa hate the game” couldn’t be more true in this case.
The EMS industry is in a fight for survival. It’s a losing battle and unless some serious change is made, the services we provide will become so expensive that nobody will be able to pay. So do I think services like the one I work for should be granted rate increases? Hell yes I do. I want to keep my job and I want us to keep providing the best service we possibly can. However, I also want to see we the people start working towards a permanent solution.
No single person or service can tackle this issue alone. And I’m sorry but Obamacare isn’t the answer. We need to elect people that truly understand the issues surrounding our healthcare system. Abuse, litigation, non-payers and broken government programs are killing the industry. We as EMS professionals need to be able to route patients to the most appropriate care. Hospitals shouldn’t have to treat a cut finger or deal with a sore throat. There are appropriate care facilities for those types of complaints, yet we still continue to use our resources transporting and treating them in an emergency setting.
We need to get people working so that they can pay their bills. If you fix the economy, then you are halfway to fixing healthcare. They really do go hand in hand. More people working = more people with money and insurance. More people paying their bills = lower healthcare costs. Fixing this should be #1 on the priority list.
Before I get too off track here, I need to get back to my point. Don’t get all hot and heavy when you hear about ambulance services requesting rate increases. The only difference between them and every other healthcare provider is that they have to ask to raise their prices. We are all playing the same survival game and if my predictions are correct, we will be playing it for a long time.
Anyone who has worked in EMS knows it. It’s all over the news papers, on the TV and in the movies. You always hear “fire fighter this” and “rescue personnel that”. Pictures in the news papers show several people in turnouts and one or two people in blue uniforms hovering around an accident victim. The title reads “fire fighters tend to victim of car accident”. Public service ads run on the TV to support your local law enforcement and fire department. But what about the EMT’s and Paramedics working for the private ambulance? Does anyone ever mention them? Does their hard work ever get recognized?
