• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Just when you thought you heard it all..

Steve

Well-known member
Just when you thought you heard it all..

my wife brought up this topic.. and I was in disbelief..

Millions Lost Yearly to Ambulance Companies Acting Like a ‘Taxi Service’

Every year, $350 million in ambulance services is lost to or ripped off by companies, according to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

“Ambulances are transporting patients that are healthy enough to travel by other means. It is a very lucrative business because each patient that is transported three times a week — [for example,] a typical dialysis patient — is worth, bills Medicare $60,000 per patient,”

ABC News went on patrol with federal agents in Huntington Valley, a suburb outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

One undercover video showed patients — Medicare beneficiaries — riding in the front seat of an ambulance as they were taken to a doctor’s appointment.

What should have been a $20 cab ride now skyrocketing to more than $400 roundtrip, all paid for by Medicare.

Kerr said that ambulance companies meet a state’s requirements to operate and then drivers search for customers in lobbies or waiting rooms. He said the drivers sometimes paid patients with cash or gifts to ride in the ambulance so the company could then bill Medicare.

“It is simple math: If they are able to recruit 20 patients, they are grossing over 1 million dollars a year,” he said. “They are making a tremendous amount of money.”

In another undercover video, a patient climbed into the front seat of an ambulance as a second patient rode in the back.

Though an ambulance is approved for medical needs — for example, a patient who can’t walk – Kerr’s office said the case of the ambulance transporting two patients at one time was double billing. In a third video, an ambulance even stopped so a patient could pick up takeout food.

“Some of the fraudsters that enter into the ambulance fraud may have been drug dealers at one point but it is just more lucrative to get involved in health-care fraud,”

I guess if is "free" then they may as well take advantage of it???

:? :???: :???: :???: :mad:
 
Top