Pay your ALS bill

[JetPhoto 626]

Pay your ALS bill

CARMEL—TransCare, a highly recognized emergency services provider throughout the U.S., has begun providing Advanced Life Support Services to residents of Putnam County.

Commissioner of Emergency Services Robert McMahon told the Courier while the provider has been affording “excellent service” to those in need the company is running into a problem with consumers not paying their bills.

More at: http://midhudsonnews.com/News/October08/29...ls-29Oct08.html

If everyone actually did that and or paid their bill, maybe the guys in the field might make another .50

[x635 4,066]

I think ambulance bills are ridiculous and a service that should be covered by taxes or charity. An ambulance is not a planned expense.

I have an $800 ALS 911 bill that my insurance company won't pay for, and now the ambulance billing company is threatening to take me to collections. I won't give the medical details, and this was a while ago. I didn't even call for the ambulance!

With the taxes you guys pay up there, I just laugh now that I'm living where I do. I have a Paramedic ambulance, staffed by two paid paramedics 24/7 a week, less then a mile from my house, in a nice EMS station. The ambulance is brand new, and refurbed or replaced every two years. Starting salary for a medic is $50,000 base (and low cost of living down here), and it's a civil service job. EMS is a full county department and service. Plus, I have a fire engine with ALS first response, and officer, driver, and THREE firefighters also less then a mile away. And, cops that actually have the time and manpower to PATROL! The area I live in is geographically and demographically similar to the Hudson Valley, yet I pay 1/4 of the taxes I would up there! I don't understand why they can make it work down here, but not in one of the wealthiest areas of the nation! Unbelievable. (Knock on wood I will never need those services!).

[paratrooper75 41]

This is part of the reason why it is soooo hard to make a living as a Paramedic in NY.

Edited October 30, 2008 by paratrooper75

[helicopper 1,050]

The area I live in is geographically and demographically similar to the Hudson Valley, yet I pay 1/4 of the taxes I would up there! I don't understand why they can make it work down here, but not in one of the wealthiest areas of the nation! Unbelievable. (Knock on wood I will never need those services!).

Is there a single school district for the County? That's the lion's share of our taxes. I'm not terribly unhappy with the municipal taxes (although they could always be lower), it's the school taxes that keep having double digit increases.

[x635 4,066]

Independent City Schols. They are excellent. Just built a new elementary in my nieghborhood. Taxes are very reasonable.

[EJS1810 7]

Independent City Schols. They are excellent. Just built a new elementary in my nieghborhood. Taxes are very reasonable.

Seth did not get his Scholing there. He is a product of NYS.

Edited October 30, 2008 by EJS1810

[Goose 188]

I think ambulance bills are ridiculous and a service that should be covered by taxes or charity. An ambulance is not a planned expense.

I have an $800 ALS 911 bill that my insurance company won't pay for, and now the ambulance billing company is threatening to take me to collections. I won't give the medical details, and this was a while ago. I didn't even call for the ambulance!

With the taxes you guys pay up there, I just laugh now that I'm living where I do. I have a Paramedic ambulance, staffed by two paid paramedics 24/7 a week, less then a mile from my house, in a nice EMS station. The ambulance is brand new, and refurbed or replaced every two years. Starting salary for a medic is $50,000 base (and low cost of living down here), and it's a civil service job. EMS is a full county department and service. Plus, I have a fire engine with ALS first response, and officer, driver, and THREE firefighters also less then a mile away. And, cops that actually have the time and manpower to PATROL! The area I live in is geographically and demographically similar to the Hudson Valley, yet I pay 1/4 of the taxes I would up there! I don't understand why they can make it work down here, but not in one of the wealthiest areas of the nation! Unbelievable. (Knock on wood I will never need those services!).

It's not the agencies fault. Blame the politicians. Around here you have VOLUNTEER or PRIMARILY VOLUNTEER departments with multi-million dollar budgets while EMS gets a few hundred thousand - chump change. The second you look for more municipal money they threaten to go to a commercial agency who will do it for free/virtually free and make up what they can in billing.

I'm still trying to figure out why towns/villages/cities in westchester look at EMS from a dollars and cents perspective but will cough up millions for other services

Edited October 30, 2008 by Goose

[JetPhoto 626]

Because all is good until you need an ambulance or a fire truck.

[FD828 77]

Maybe more pressure should be placed on the insurance companies. Why won't they cover an ambulance bill???? It wasn't medically neccessary?? BS. Why don't they cover the bill if the medic rides in the Vol. Ambulance??? Medicare deamed Putnam and urban county and won't pay for fly-car medics? They will only pay the transporting agency?? It's all a bunch of crap. And for the ones who have been in Putnam a long while.... people don't want to pay any more taxes and that's what would have to happen to make EMS civil service (which I think it should be). When they implemented the 911 system in Putnam, people went crazy. They had to change house numbers and there was a ridiculous tax of like $0.30 that people bitched about. Imagine if they had to pay another $50 or $100 a year. No politician would ever stick their neck out to do the right thing. It's like people said, nobody cares as long as a BRT or an ambulance shows up.