My wife was in a car accident, and surprisingly, the ambulance bill (perhaps 5 miles, "night" surcharge (7pm), private ambulance in the bay area) was "only" ~$3400. I seem to recall an ambulance ride when I was a kid (20 years ago) costing something like $5k plus when I crashed my bicycle.
Funny thing, though, the ambulance bill was the only thing NOT covered 100% initially. The hospital and surgeons bill your insurance, and we didn't pay a dime (other than a comical $200k+ explanation of benefits telling us our claim was denied when they initially submitted to the wrong insurance). The ambulance company billed us, and I spent ~6 months working it out, and I think it's finally sorted. The upshot is because it was a "car accident", the health insurance doesn't want to pay it; car insurance is primary. In theory the car insurance is the primary on her entire hospital stay, but because the medical payments on our car insurance is only $10k it's basically pointless to involve them. They don't even know there was a hospital visit. So I had to go back and forth a bunch of times to even (re-)open the car insurance claim, get it submitted, send more and more documents, fend off the ambulance company always threatening to send us to collections because I had better things to do than deal with their crap, and so on.
Current status is I've paid maybe $600 on a payment plan, my insurance says they paid in full, the payment wasn't yet reflected on the ambulance co billing site, but in theory once that payment posts they issue me a refund on my payments to date.
We're so incredibly lucky to have insurance; actually she was double-covered at the time of the accident (hence the billing confusion initially), we have money, we have family in the area to help with doctor visits, and there was really only one provider. I can only imagine what a nightmare sorting the bills would have been if we had to manually submit to insurance from multiple providers and stay on top of many many claims. It would be a full time job for sure.
Some credit cards come with automatic travel insurance, but regardless it is well worth researching before you travel. Hospital stays abroad sometimes need to be paid out-of-pocket until you are reimbursed later on.
It all depends on the circumstances, your country of origin and any extra insurance you might have taken out.
I ended up in hospital for a fairly routine operation about a decade ago and had to pay out of pocket, luckily it was in a place where they just charge you for actual cost rather than to try to balance their budget by bankrupting you so it ended up being $1500. The same thing in the US would have been a large multiple.
My aunt broke her shoulder while travelling in the US and had to fly back to Ireland to get it properly treated after an initial x-ray. She would have been ruined financially otherwise.
Is that particularly different from how you'd be treated in any other foreign country?
I mean, I have no idea what would happen if I broke my arm while overseas either. I have insurance (in the US), and assume it would get sorted out somehow, eventually, but I have no idea what my share would be. I just don't anticipate being turned away at the hospital door though.
You most definitely get some huge bill. Depends what covers that bill. Travel insurance, your home healthcare or some extra insurance you buy for the US specifically.
3.4k and 5k. I would expect the keys to ambulance after the ride for that price. How can that cost be justified, did you get any treatment in the ambulance other than oxygen and maybe some morphine?
It's not just a ride in a vehicle is it? Ambulances carry paramedics and sometimes doctors, tens of thousands of dollars worth of drugs and equipment. Even if you don't use all of that, they can't do anything else during the time that they're on your call, they need to be heavily insured, and they also need to stand by all day waiting for calls.
The numbers still seem extremely high, even if an ambulance only does 3 trips a day on a bad day, that's over 10k USD. A private ambulance ride in Thailand (Im not talking rescue org ambualances) for example is $80-$120. Now I understand the service standard might not be as high, and wages are lower, and so on, but is it really 40x as expensive in USA to cover costs?
Actually a better example, might be HKG, where service probably exceeds US, an ambulance ride is HKD990 (~USD127) apparently. It is mentioned elsewhere in this topic that its $82 in Canada for an ambulance.
Ok, let's say 3 people with reasonable salaries, $10k a month. Equipment and a car even though is costly is used for long period, let's say $500k over 5 years, that's $8.3k a month. Medications are expendable, because the more load an ambulance has (and medication usage) the more revenue it brings, but ok, let's add $10k a month for resupplying medications, plus other small expenses it's total $50k a month. In the situation described by rconti (5 miles) it probably took them less than an hour for revenue of $3400, let's say an hour, and let's say they have average load of 3 such calls a day (not really a heavy load). It's more than $300k a month in revenue. So, what's the reason for $250k difference?
I'm not defending the cost! Just saying you can't look at it and say 'that's more than the cost of the vehicle' because it's not about the cost of the vehicle.
Yes, I understand. That's why I wanted to take a look at components of the long term cost, not just one ride. And I'm really curious what's the cause for the difference.
I think ultimately the system is fcked across the board, private interests and greed combined with legal corruption (lobbying) to get their way and government guided by the people that line their own pockets. Weather it is pre-Obama, Obama or whatever Donald is planning all the pricing is insane compared against <take-your-pick> of any other developed country. None of the justification holds much weight, even "cross-subsidization" I don't see affecting it to this extent unless only 1 in 20+ actually ever pay anything.
Funny thing, though, the ambulance bill was the only thing NOT covered 100% initially. The hospital and surgeons bill your insurance, and we didn't pay a dime (other than a comical $200k+ explanation of benefits telling us our claim was denied when they initially submitted to the wrong insurance). The ambulance company billed us, and I spent ~6 months working it out, and I think it's finally sorted. The upshot is because it was a "car accident", the health insurance doesn't want to pay it; car insurance is primary. In theory the car insurance is the primary on her entire hospital stay, but because the medical payments on our car insurance is only $10k it's basically pointless to involve them. They don't even know there was a hospital visit. So I had to go back and forth a bunch of times to even (re-)open the car insurance claim, get it submitted, send more and more documents, fend off the ambulance company always threatening to send us to collections because I had better things to do than deal with their crap, and so on.
Current status is I've paid maybe $600 on a payment plan, my insurance says they paid in full, the payment wasn't yet reflected on the ambulance co billing site, but in theory once that payment posts they issue me a refund on my payments to date.
We're so incredibly lucky to have insurance; actually she was double-covered at the time of the accident (hence the billing confusion initially), we have money, we have family in the area to help with doctor visits, and there was really only one provider. I can only imagine what a nightmare sorting the bills would have been if we had to manually submit to insurance from multiple providers and stay on top of many many claims. It would be a full time job for sure.