Finding Ulysses

There was a special Trumansburg Village Board meeting on January 27th to discuss the implementation of a fee for service EMS.  It ran very smoothly, because no one in attendance raised any of the many important objections that I have written about here and at http://trumansburgambulance.blogspot.com/ for two years.  I did not attend, but I have listened to the audio file, which I would be happy to post online, if anyone cares.

Trustee Chris Thomas spoke about the details of making the transition, and said that there was no need to discuss the fundamental reasons for it, as that had been thoroughly addressed at previous meetings. (yeah, right)

The president of Professional Ambulance Billing, Chuck Jordan,  http://www.4pab.com/index.html attended and spoke about how wonderful this plan is.  He said that our plan is the most “patient friendly” plan that he has ever seen.  I guess he was referring to the part of the plan that proposes that a patient that has good insurance would never even see a bill, because the only bill would be to the insurance company, and the uninsured residents would not be billed.

He later raised the issue of whether or not the Village would want his company to bill patients that had large deductibles.  No firm conclusion was reached, but I get the distinct impression that we are headed towards billing this group.  It is difficult to determine what percentage of the population is underinsured, but it is a large group, and it is growing, as premiums rise and the economy declines. So, these folks will have to weigh the cost of a ride in the ambulance, against the risk of not calling during a medical emergency.

Mr. Jordan also asked the Board whether or not they would want his company to bill patients who receive EMS services within our district, but who do not pay taxes here, such as visitors and tourists.  It seems very likely that they will also be billed.  Mr. Jordan said that in Orchard Park NY, that this group composed 39% of the bills.  This group would probably be treated as regular patients, outside of the “insurance only billing”  In other words they would probably get a bill whether they had insurance or not, so they too, will have to weigh the risk of refusing care, if they are not well insured.

Mr. Jordan is convinced that he can facilitate a process that will be a great benefit to our community and be very patient friendly.  It seems to me that it would be a great benefit to him and his company, to the private for profit insurance companies who will have a new opportunity for profit, to the libertarian ideologues who don’t believe that we are all in this together, and to those who are well insured and don’t give a damn about those who are not.