Frank Mickadeit's column in the OC Register sums up the Costa Mesa battle over paramedic service outsourcing: Ambulance Mogul Looks to Cut Costs. In the online edition, the article is titled 'Private Paramedics Get Paid (a Lot) Less'. Ambulance mogul tells you everything you need to know about what is going on in Costa Mesa.
Private ambulances and paramedics do not work for free or to break even, they work to make a profit for the owner of the business (the Mogul). To make that profit, residents will be charged much more than the $185/call they are now charged by Costa Mesa. According to city staff, the $185 is billed to insurance companies and Medicare and the City accepts whatever payment made as payment in full. Residents are not 'balance billed', the highly controversial practice where a medical provider starts collection activities against the insured for the difference between reimbursement and what the provider thinks the service should cost. Costa Mesa writes off fees for residents who can't pay. Private providers can't do that and need to pursue collection activities to get their money.
Costa Mesa City Council has invented a new and unique form of ambulance chasing - picture the for-profit company outracing the fire department to get to the patient first so they can load them up into their vehicle to claim the higher payment due to them. There's going to be a financial Russian roulette going on here - do you get the low cost, high quality Fire Department or do you get the high cost private service? The injured and bleeding public won't know until they get the bill.
Ambulance moguls don't like fire departments because fire departments can provide fast, cost effective services to people without discrimination and without first checking for a financial pulse first. And that gets in the way of being a good mogul.
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