Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

If any private service in this state is operating 100% on the level I'll eat my stethoscope. When you think about how little Medicare and Medicaid pay in RI, it's almost impossible to stay in business following every single regulation to the letter.

I find it completely disheartening that the only people who operate within the law are your bread 'n butter taxpayers. Oh wait, I mean the old fashion people who believed a man's handshake was his promise and back by his reputation.

With all the troubles coming from the corrupt General Assembly to the questionable ethics of the AG's office, it's no surprise that the very people we count on to give us proper medical transport is just another entity grabbing more than their fair share of the pie.

If found guilty, rip the company's license to operate. Some outfit who legal follows the rules will be glad to pick up the business at fire sale prices.

The trouble is that many of these companies who bill Medicare and Medicaid for their services soon find out how very easy it is to get money out of the system. Simply submit a few numbers and voila!, a tidy check appears. It's like a license to print money. How many taxpayers would, given the chance, take advantage of an employment situation in which they merely had to submit timesheets every week, and nobody would notice whether or not they actually showed up for work?

Also, I disagree with EMT's assertion that Medicare and Medicaid pay so little. Following the death of a family member, I had a gander at his records that detailed the vast sums of money that these programs were paying out each and every month for medical services presumably rendered. Several hundreds of thousands a year! And let us not forget that companies that bill Medicare are assured of payment, a sweet deal that those of us business owners who must constantly chase down monies legitimately owed us. Sometimes it's like we work an additional part-time job as collection agencies. No, if Medicare payments were not so well-paying, there would not exist a long line of companies eager to partake at the trough.

This would be far more interesting discussion of you knew anything about which you spoke.

"Following the death of a family member, I had a gander at his records that detailed the vast sums of money that these programs were paying out each and every month for medical services presumably rendered. Several hundreds of thousands a year!"

But not for ambulance service- lucky to get $200 per trip, and that's probably generous. Medicaid is less than $100 regardless of equipment supplies, or medications used.

"nd let us not forget that companies that bill Medicare are assured of payment,"

Not at ALL. If an ambulance service gets payment on 1/3 of their billed transports, it's a good day. There are literally dozens of reasons- having nothing to do with any action by the ambulance service or crew- that Medicare will deny payment for services rendered. Simply put, if Medicare decides that transport- regardless of why the patient was being transported- could have been effected by some other means, including private vehicle, they will deny payment.

"No, if Medicare payments were not so well-paying, there would not exist a long line of companies eager to partake at the trough."

In the case of ambulance services, the "long line" is of companies that have failed and employees out of work due to underpayments and lack of payments.