February 2023 report from State House News Service.
Emergency transportation in a publicly-owned ambulance in Massachusetts costs about twice the national average, according to an upcoming report from the state's Health Policy Commission.
The report, which has not been publicly released yet, shows disparities in how much insurance payers are charged for ambulance services in Massachusetts between publicly- and privately-owned ambulance companies, and between commercial insurers and public insurance such as MassHealth.
Nationwide, commercially insured patients pay an average $761 for an ambulance trip from a municipally owned emergency medical services company, compared to a $1,578 charge in Massachusetts, researcher Diana S. Váscones told the HPC's Market Oversight and Transparency Committee at a meeting on Wednesday.
Of the 1.5 million EMS patient transports in Massachusetts in 2019, commercial insurance payers paid municipal ambulance services roughly double what they paid private ambulances per transport. Most payments for middle-tier services were between $500 and $1,000 for private ambulances and between $750 and $2,500 for municipal transports.
Publicly owned ambulance services are commonly tied to fire departments, although there are some cities that have standalone EMS departments, such as Boston and Fall River. In 2019, there was about a one-to-one chance of being picked up by a private versus public ambulance.
Even as emergency trips have gotten more expensive for everyone over the last six years, payments over $2,000 for municipal ambulances have doubled from 17% in 2017 to 34% in 2020 for similar care.
When asked why emergency trips were so much more expensive in publicly owned vehicles, Váscones said "we don't have the clearest picture of that."
"We do think that it may be related to differences in payer contracting with private versus municipal services. It may be that payers are less likely to contract with municipal services," she said.
She added it is something the commission plans to look into further.
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One reason why might be due to Staffing issues.
ReplyDeleteFlight Paramedic. Salary range: $55,000-$74,500 per year. ...
EMT. Salary range: $35,500-$47,000 per year. ...
80% plus of Templeton calls for service are Ambulance related yet our Town seems staffed mainly for Fire service.
This week in the weekly report shows the problem..........85%+ of calls were Ambulance yet over 60% of funds are directed to Fire, why?
Ambulance is supporting firefighter staffing and costing Massachusetts taxpayers almost double..............Awesome.
Emergency calls: 35
30 EMS, 2 fire alarm, 1 high angle rescue, 1 lock-out, 1 motor vehicle accident.
I believe we were told we would hav e ALS service thru-out town, but from what I can tell only Baldwinville has ALS, sometimes BLS and the rest of town gets Police department.
ReplyDeleteI'm 13 minutes away by ambulance because its stationed in Baldwinville to maintain average response times.
How long till most house fires are fully engaged?
How long is ALS/BLS response times...................
What does this do to our police staffing as they are used as first response to many medical calls...
I'm not sure if anyone remembers all the details, but the fire chief was working on a public safety building where Alexandria drive is now. Back in the 1980's. The land was going to be sold by the Putnam family for next to nothing. I don't remember the details, but it was voted down. Similar to any time a feasibility study is done and it is determined a central location would benefit the taxpayers. It makes it to the funding vote and never makes it any further
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