What should I do

[Skylane81E]

How can ambulances cost $6000? That's ridiculous.

1) ambulances are expensive
2) the equipment is even more expensive
3) the crew is made up of well trained professionals
4) always having an ambulance ready means spending time doing nothing

5) captive audience, if you NEED the emergency transport you aren't going to turn it down for the cost!

 

[denverpilot]

5) captive audience, if you NEED the emergency transport you aren't going to turn it down for the cost!

Heh. Same reason EAA caved to FAA.

Government has figured out that it can continue to collect taxes and then send out bills for services like private entities.

The trend will continue until the constituents say, "Hey... wait a minute... didn't we already pay for this?"



Good luck getting a full accounting picture with the mix of local government, Federal grants, and fees all lumped together in a pile feeding the mess.

There's DEFINITELY some SERIOUS milking going on in contractor's consultant fees, and equipment vendors. The area I know is radios and OMFG the entire U.S. was bent over and violated by Motorola in the NTIA mandated narrow-banding and conversion to APCO Project 25 digital.

Every radio on the market jumped by more than 10 times the prices of analog and slowly worked down to about 2 to 3 times analog prices. And a Motorola Zone Controller and software updates plus maintenance contract? Millions. Per agency.

Lets not talk about stuff like LED light bars even. Should technically be cheaper, right?

Take a Whelen aircraft bulb's price difference between the incandescent and LED and multiply it by about 10X whenever you see one of those police cars blinding everyone for a mile with nice new LEDs.

Lots and lots of milking it in Public Safety. Tons. Until you hit rural areas and their volunteer group is begging for gear money and doesn't have professional grant request writers on staff.

 

[weilke]

How can ambulances cost $6000? That's ridiculous.

Well, it was $3000 per ride.

One of the reasons for that pricing is the fact that every ride paid for by private insurance has to subsidize
- a couple of rides reimbursed below cost by medicare
- a couple of rides reimbursed way below cost by medicaid
- a couple of rides that go unpaid because people have a cough and dont want to pay for a taxi to the ER.

EMS is an ok business in that narrow band of surburbia where you have enough paying customers to make it worthwhile but people are not spread out enough for it to require too much equipment and staff. Public agencies rarely make any money on EMS as the staff expenses with retirement etc. are too high.

 

[slacktide]

Yep. First ride was Everett Fire Department EMS. Everett has an EMS property tax levy. EMS services are provided at no charge for Everett residents and employees of Everett business for service rendered at the place of employment. If you are not a resident, you get sent a bill. I have HEARD but don't know for sure, that if you are uninsured they will waive the bill.

The second ride for the hospital transfer was with a for-profit company. (Rural/Metro). They bill everyone... even if the patient dies in-route.