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Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

davidoks.blog

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Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#181

There should be an "Uberlance" - discount emergency pickups by Uber, at Uber prices.

Unlike an ambulance, an uber driver won't be able to keep a hemodynamically unstable patient alive for a 30 minute transport.

LAFD has already called Ubers for non-emergency transport to hospitals.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#182
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average ambulance transport costs $2,673 to provide I think this ignores the 400 pound gorilla in the room. Why does an ambulance transport cost thousands for the operator? This is a short trip in an automobile, essentially a fancy uber ride. At first one might say that's flippant - obviously ambulances are specialized vehicles, and you have paramedics, and they need to get to locations quickly, and so forth, b…

I think the main expense you are missing is medication and disposable equipment and insurance for the ambulance and medical malpractice. Otherwise, yeah, I suspect the other major cost is the "It's the mayor's brother's business" cost and the "private equity has figured out how to extract maximum value" cost. That said, there's no reason the patent should be charged anything. It should be entirely a tax burden of the…

Insurance is included.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#184
post #175
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average ambulance transport costs $2,673 to provide I think this ignores the 400 pound gorilla in the room. Why does an ambulance transport cost thousands for the operator? This is a short trip in an automobile, essentially a fancy uber ride. At first one might say that's flippant - obviously ambulances are specialized vehicles, and you have paramedics, and they need to get to locations quickly, and so forth, b…

All in cost of the employee is probably double or more of your example $23 an hour wage, just to flesh out your napkin math

Which would increase the cost to $325, though I was deliberately excluding overhead.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#185

I think the answer is very simple. Regulation. If there was no regulation or very little then anyone could open up an ambulance service and the cheapest costs and the best service would win. Unfortunately that’s not the case. It’s like day care. Day care is expensive because the government mandates it to be expensive. Otherwise you’d have grandmas down your street would gladly watch your kid but it’s generally not al…

When you are bleeding out on the street, you don't have time to shop around for the best deal

Wont matter because nobody is going to be paying 12k for a ambulance ride if there are people doing it significantly cheaper.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#187
post #5

You don't have to pay them unless they're specific. I got a bill 3 years after being in an accident and I asked them for the documentation they legally have to provide me (itemization, the legal basis, detailed incident record, attempts on their part to contact insurance) of how they arrived at the sum. It's been a year since and they haven't given me anything. Besides this kind of billing is banned in California now…

The law you've cited only applies for "emergency transport".

Falck has found a workaround: Bill emergencies as "non-emergency" so they can balance bill. This is, of course, fraud. I'm sure that enough don't understand the law that this makes them a lot of money.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#188
post #133
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average ambulance transport costs $2,673 to provide I think this ignores the 400 pound gorilla in the room. Why does an ambulance transport cost thousands for the operator? This is a short trip in an automobile, essentially a fancy uber ride. At first one might say that's flippant - obviously ambulances are specialized vehicles, and you have paramedics, and they need to get to locations quickly, and so forth, b…

It may also be telling to figure out why no startup is offering $400 ambulance rides and dominating on volume.

I for one would love to see a startup called say, "Trauma Team International" or "Docwagon"...

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#189
post #133
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average ambulance transport costs $2,673 to provide I think this ignores the 400 pound gorilla in the room. Why does an ambulance transport cost thousands for the operator? This is a short trip in an automobile, essentially a fancy uber ride. At first one might say that's flippant - obviously ambulances are specialized vehicles, and you have paramedics, and they need to get to locations quickly, and so forth, b…

It may also be telling to figure out why no startup is offering $400 ambulance rides and dominating on volume.

Almost certainly regulations. Anything even vaguely medically-related tends to be very, very highly regulated.
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