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Durand Ford, Jr. says the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department has sent him a $780.85 bill for an ambulance that he called for his father early on the morning of Jan. 1.
Ford tells News4 that his father died waiting for that ambulance, after it took more than 30 minutes to arrive.
“I feel angry. Upset,” Ford said. “I’m disturbed that we even received this bill.”
Ford said he and his family called 911 in the early hours of New Year's Day because his father, 71-year-old Durand Ford, Sr. had trouble breathing.
According to records, the 911 call was made at 1:25 a.m. A DC fire truck arrived only nine minutes later, but an ambulance was unavailable. According to Prince George’s County Fire & EMS records, DC Fire did not call Prince George’s County for assistance until 1:47 a.m. One minute later, the county dispatched an ambulance from Oxon Hill to go to Ford’s home in Southeast Washington. It arrived at 1:58 a.m.
By then, Ford had died.
“We’re still grieving about the situation,” Ford, Jr. said. “[We’re] very angry about what happened and the service we did not receive from the district.”
DC Councilwoman Yvette Alexander, who represents the Fords in Ward 7, tells News4’s Shomari Stone, “Based on my experience in similar circumstances, DC Fire & EMS has not billed.”
“This seems quite unusual, and I will help the family resolve this matter,” Alexander continued.
DC Fire & EMS did not return News4’s request for comment.
Leave a Comment:
He should never have been billed! Tell me again, why do we pay taxes? Every time we needed an ambulance for accidents we get the same ridiculous bill like this one! They collect from taxes, insurance and then want a chunk from the citizen!
"They" being the government and "they" being the ambulance company that employs and maintains ambulances and EMT's.
They are not one and the same. You are paying for debt service, social security, medicare and the military.
Some ambulance services are actually privately owned.
Your taxes just pay for the equipment and men to sit at the station. To actually dispatch them out? Well, that will cost you extra. And most insurances don't cover ambulance rides.
I have had to call an ambulance for my wife twice over the years. I was billed both times, and it was paid after my deductible was met by my major medical. But, this being this man's father, I don't see how he would be billed, he would not be responsible for this fathers medical bills. The bill was probably sent to his deceased father or to his deceased father's wife if he had one.
Terry...your right about the deductable but because there was such a delay in response I'd question any billing. I wonder if there is an established guildline for response time and if so it is. Time to revisit certification if they failed to meet that goal as it may have cost this individual their life.
Absolutely no surprise here......
Sorry to say this but when the ambulance goes out the door someone pays. In car accidents if someones dies on the way to the hospital you still pay or I should say someone pays. Thats life and in this case death. A$$ grass or gas no one rides for free! Thats the way the world goes around.
Three years ago, a 5-mile ambulance run for my kid was $650 out of pocket. When we called 9-1-1, we had no choice over which ambulance responded. The private ambulance that showed up was not a "participating provider" with our insurance, BC/BS. The emergency room visit only cost $100 out of pocket.
Us taxpaying suckers get billed for everything. After all, someone's got to pay for Medicaid recipiants to use ambulances like a taxi service to the emergency room even for minor headaches and coughing without paying a dime.
The bill becomes part of the father's estate. The man also needs to see a lawyer. Some bills, like credit cards and federal student loans, end with death. Some do not.
I was paying my bill at the local collection agency, which handles the town's and the local hospital's debt collecting, and over-heard a debt collector calling on a woman, explaining, that, yes, her mother was dead, but the bill still needed to be paid, yes, mother had been in the hospital (two years earlier), and the interest has been accumulating since then. Now, how did the daughter want to pay the bill? (The local agency is way less than professional in other ways. I usually get my bill a week after the date on the paper, even though every other business has a two day turn-around.)
What do you expect form an EMT or Paramedic that only get paid 10.25 per hour and has to work a 12 or 24 hour shift. Save your Life?
F
For starters, EMTs and paramedics do not save lives. We provide basic or advanced life support. The patient is then released to the next level of care generally the being the ER crew. They, in turn, provide more life support. Some patients go to surgery for whatever repairs are needed, some are treated and released. In some cases, illness or injury have done so much damage, no medical care is sufficient for life to continue and the patient dies.
That's all medical care is folks, providing support or making repairs to buy time. I wasn't there so I can only speculate. 28 minutes from 'trouble breathing' to death seems like an eternity to the family. However, anything that can do so much damage in 28 minutes that life cannot continue is major. Brain cells begin to die in approx. 5 minutes without O2. I'd be interested to know what the autopsy found.
Having said all that, this is why fire personnel need dual training. There should have been an EMT/firefighter, oxygen, and an AED on that truck.
$780.00 to take the pulse of a dead man and leave? This is all about $ for these "services" (real surprise, huh) everytime there's a fender bender they send out a fire truck or two, a couple of cops and an ambulance, even if you say there's no injuries. Then everybody bills.
Too many people rely on others to help in time of need. Why didn't the family take him to the E.R. themselves? About that bill though, unless the ambulance actually took him somewhere or provided some service, there should be no charge.
jkatze, what if this was a home on fire, and the ambulance arrived before the firetruck? Would you then agree that the paramedics should also get firefighting training and the ambulance should have a high pressure hose on it (or maybe a water tank and a bucket) in order to provide initial firefighting capability until the firetruck arrives? Let each service branch stick with what they do best, and let's just concentrate on ensuring that both specialists arrive on the scene at similar times - not exactly at the same time, but at similar times. I don't think that's too much to ask. In this case, regardless of where the blame lies, the ambulance arrived long after the firetruck. Find what caused this to happen, and try to remedy it.
The Archetype of arrogance that is pervasive in our nation's capitol.
Yep, there's lots of people in the country that aren't happy with the service we're getting from the district. On the upside Syria, Eqypt, and Pakistan are getting great service from DC.
J katze - If you don't think you don't save lives as an EMT you need to think about it. It takes a minute or less to bleed out if the cut is in the right place - you stop the bleeding and got the person to the ER YOU SAVED A LIFE! I agree there is more of a push to get more firefighters with EMT training to cut costs but also get the help as soon as possible.
MSN Visitor - I hope if a crisis hits you you have the telephone number to some superpower - maybe Batman or Superman - cross training saves time and therefore lives. Sorry but if your house is in flames and a choice to be made I start on the humans - the rest can be covered with insurance -
Bow2me (1.14), first off, the woman's son's ER bill was not $100. That was her co-pay because the hospital has a contract with that hospital. A bandaid costs more than $100 in the ER. Secondly, you do not know how serious her son's condition was or maybe she did not have access to a car that day. Also, at many hospitals, if you come in by ambulance, you get seen faster, no matter what your condition, than if you walk in (relative drives you, or you drive yourself).
Let's get real people!! The ball was dropped and a human died because he did not receive treatment at all. Could they have saved him? Possibly so, maybe not but because of negligence in the loop noone was there to try. They should have packed up their gear, gone back to their little station house and eat or drink coffee or sleep. Whoever is in charge should have done whatever to make sure that this was not chargeable. The ambulance was never there to do anything so why would they bill the person. Did they give him a ride to the hospital, just so a doctor could say "yep he's dead?" There are times when compassion should be part of the equation for services especially in a death.
Weren't the guys on the fire truck capable and had oxygen. If not, I will write a complaint to whoever over sees the ambulance. The city? the county. I would want to KNOW why they took about 30 minutes to arrive and would want to know if that delay cost my dad his life. When my dad was on vacation in Yellowstone he dropped dead right by the ranger station. They start CPR and called from an ambulance and it didn't come and didn't come so they put him in the back of their wagon and continued CPR until they met the ambulance.
I understand this is rural, BUT the ambulance took him to the medical clinic inside the park because it was suppose to be closer than Jackson Hole. Well, it might have been, BUT they had closed for the season the week before. You would think they should know that kind of stuff. It took over an hour and by was my mom tortured by it. Stuff nightmares are made of.
His estate will have to pay the bill. If his estate doesn't have the money, then they won't get paid. His son, nor anyone else, is responsible for the bill. But whether you die or not, you still have to pay. And why would you wait 30 minutes for an ambulance? Somebody had to have had a car.
Property taxes do not pay for ambulance rides. Some cities won't bill THEIR residents, but it is still at their discretion.
About taking him to the hospital themselves... Foolish. An elderly man with trouble breathing could be in congestive heart failure or a full out heart attack. My own experience last year: I called 911 and an ambulance took about three minutes to arrive. Its about a ten minute drive to the hospital and I coded in the ambulance. They used a defibrillator to restart my heart. Had I been in a car, I would have died. The son did the right thing. It just didn't help.
tag,
The son did the right thing by calling 911 but the dispatch of an ambulance 22 minutes after the first call is what I have an issue with. I would never pay that bill, credit rating be damned. I would also be looking to sue DC Fire for failure to respond by waiting 22 minutes to call Prince George's County to dispatch an ambulance.
What I did not see in the story was:
Was anyone from the Fire Dept using CPR, or a portable heart defibrillator?
Most crews carry basic life saving things on trucks now, as they are on the scene first and it sometimes takes time for an ambulance to arrive.
As far as getting a bill....Right...I'd send them a bill.
My father died in Alaska and not only used an ambulance but a med evac plane. He was already dead when he was transported, but a doctor had to pronounce him. Threw my attorney they where told to shove it. As where the ER doctors.
They will try and soak the families and put pressure on them to pay, but a bad ass lawyer will put them in their place.
P.S. When they started calling me about the bills, I told them "not my problem...But if you where to bring my dad back.... I'm sure he'd pay".
If you think its bad now........wait until Obamacare kicks in!
Just in the US...in Canada until the universal single payer system you wouldn't pay anything for the ambulance or emergency room or needed surgery....not even co-pays. Why are we so stupid to maintain this private insurance based medical system?
I love the fallacy that is going on about bills with the dead. This is why you write a will.
The estate of the dead person gets the bill. If you will your possessions to heirs they get them and not the estate. And previous creditors can't collect or harass surviving family members for old debts. It is not enforceable, and it is a dirty, and illegal, trick that collectors often try to pull on grieving family members stating they must pay. This company also provided no service except showing up late and possibly costing the man his life. Ambulances and EMTs don't touch corpses, they call the morgue. There is no justification for the bill, never mind the fact they actually tried to collect from grieving relatives.
These people should take up another American tradition, sue the hell out of them.
Straight from the sky. Delivered by drone.
Tell them to shove their bill straight up their assses
The ambulance leaves the garage, they CHARGE, period - what, MDs don't charge us even when we die under their care? ALL deaths when an ambulance is called are then automatically the fault of the ambulance? Yeesh, I hear 30 calls a day on my police scanner sending out a fully-equipped life-support unit out for some "90 year old, short of breath" or "80 year old, fall". I blocked out the conventional ambulance channelS because I was tired of hearing every freaking geriatric with a hangnail get a 10 mile ride to a trauma center (aka the Emergency Room) courtesy Medicare. Not EVERY city can afford to have dozens of ambulances on standby so geriatrics can feel like they're "living independently". The poorhouse, while a much-maligned concept, may need to return or we're gonna wind up paying ever increasing costs to shuttle burgeoning centenarian populations from their homes to now-centralized hospitals...
To the posters who think emergency services are too expensive, some people abuse the system, regularly. They never pay for emergency services - whether it's the ER (that they use for regular health care) or ambulance services. The rest of us who can afford to, pick up the slack for those who don't or cannot pay. That's just the way it is.
Sounds like you don't have a whole lot to do with your time. For your information, the "geriatric" set has PAID FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES THEIR WHOLE WORKING LIFETIME, and deserve to ask for help once in awhile. You need to show some compassion for other people - you might become a person yourself some day.
DC EMS is RUN by the DC government. They were having this very discussion weeks before the holidays about cutting back on ambulance and EMT services to save money. If you do not live in this area, please ask someone who does. DC has lost it's mind, they are trying to bill this family for an ambulance that was sent from Oxon Hill (Which actually from the Fort Washington area, firehouse is down the road from my house). So they want to bill this family for a service that they did NOT provide, but that the people in the State of MD and the County of Prince Georges did provide. We pay for our services through our tax dollars.
I think the bigger issue at hand here is the fact that they even sent out a bill to the family. Not that many years ago that never would've happened. It's the same for police and fire; these used to be services provided by the city or municipality that was funded solely by taxes and thus there was no need to send a "bill". In this country we have become so tax averse and so cheap that we've allowed taxes to be cut down past the bone forcing city governments to have to find other sources of income to continue basic, life saving services. Personally, I think it is a shame and a disgrace that we've valued money and greed over services that used to be provided by the community as a whole to serve the common good. It is also a testament to the fact that in this country, medical services are held to the same standards of profits and budgetary pressures as any other business who would have to struggle to keep it's doors open based on demand. Personally, I would much rather pay a higher tax rate to ensure that these types of services are available to all people within my community than to have to worry if I have a credit card in my back pocket when the emergency personnel show up to render aid.
911: We can't get an ambulance to you for at least 30 minutes.
caller: My father can't breath! What are we supposed to do?
911: Do you have a car to drive him?
caller: No
911: Call a cab. We will dispatch a police car to escort the cab to the nearest emergency room.
(although since the fire truck arrived I assume the police car is there also.)
How long would it take to get a cab there? Could the police have transported him? Would that have been legal being a dire emergency?
Did dispatch even advise the caller about an ambulance not being available for a timely arrival?
I don't know, but if any charge was to be made, should it have been a full charge? Would an actual trip to the ER have been considerably more?
The reason you call 911 is because the patient is in serious trouble. You never put a critically ill person in your car to transport them to a hospital. What happens if they stop breathing en route? Do you have oxygen in your car? Do you have a defib machine in your car? Do you have medical skills? An ambulance is equipped with medical tools, medications, etc. and trained personnel. That is why you call an ambulance. It isn't about the bill. It's about giving your loved one the best chance of making it to the hosptial alive.
agreed. Where was the fire departments equipment? Was the caller told about the ambulance delay? In my town, the police even have limited equipment in the trunks of their cars. At least a defibrillator. Also, how long was the dad having breathing problems that night? Did he resist the son suggesting they went as soon as he started having problems? Did the dad have a history of this problem? Still too little information in the story to even comment on. So, as I agree with you, even if a person could have a spinal injury and if there was a danger of the car exploding, you would pull him out of it, wouldn't you?
We got billed like this for an emergency concerning my son and I called them back asking why I would get a bill when my taxes already pay for the service? They said it's not required to pay if we do not want to and that they would cancel the bill. They where trying to recoup expenses without hitting the tax payers.
A real measure of arrogance is when Congress asks you to testify about your role in starting 2 wars and then blowing them off. Pot meet kettle. Keep throwing stones from your glass house Einstein, you make yourself look like an idiot more and more.
If they did not, someone would complain that they are not getting city services that they deserve. Bet on it.
@Cniht:
You are correct that no family member is responsible for the bill - but the man's estate, if there is any, is and rightfully so. Whether it's a will or a trust, creditors are paid first. That would be like saying, heck my dad died so we don't have to pay the utility companies, the car payment, the mortgage - whatever. The estate will have to pay its creditors, and the ambulance company is one if they pursue it.
And although sad in this case, no ambulance company guarantees time of arrival.
@ Steve:
Well, there's a classic a**-hole idiot response! Because your dad died, everyone gets screwed out of being paid for what they tried to do.
Your dad's estate or will would have been legally bound to pay it's creditors. Maybe he had nothing, so then nobody had to pay - but creditors always get paid first.
It's your freeloader mentality that is killing this country!
Wait until Obamacare kicks in??? Obamacare has already kicked in for a lot of people. My son now has health insurance, thanks to Obamacare! How can you think giving more people the right and opportunity to purchase health insurance has ANYTHING to do with a delay in calling ambulances?
wouldn't pay 'em a freaking penny. I'd tell them to stuff that bill where the sun don't shine.
I'd say "Collect from my Dad."
I would wipe my buttocks with the bill and send it back collect.........
Let's assume the died right after he was wheeled into the emergency room even with a 30 minute delay. Who pays?
"Based on her experience in similar situations....."? So this is common, sometimes they come, sometimes they don't.
Well B7 in that case the emergency services would have done its job properly. Unless they intentionally waited while taking him to the hospital, they would still be paid. But in this case they were too busy to send one until 20 minutes later and that was too late. They make the mistake so why should they get paid?
For having had the audacity to send this bill in this situation; they deserve to be sued for their own negligence in this matter. They shouldn't see a penny for being utterly inept at doing their jobs...
Isn't the Free Market lovely?
Dad isn't the only that called for the ambulance - incurring the bill. But even still they could collect from Dad through the estate. By then they have added legal and collection charges, interest, etc.
They are paid by their freaking city to do their job and the taxpayers money pays for them to do that job. Only in an instance where it can be proven that the call was a prank should a bill be sent to a taxpayer to pay again for what the taxes have been paid for. Just another way for local governments to gouge people for more money and it stinks. Volunteer rescue units?? Maybe you should pick another venue if you expect pay. That's what volunteer stands for "FREE". I wouldn't pay them a dime. Had the same situation of no care or improper care given when my mother in law passed due to the rehab facility. They knew they screwed up and never sent a bill for the stay. It takes a set to send a bill for services rendered when you did nothing.
Guess this is why they had a $400M surplus last year. I lived in DC for 6 months. The government in DC charges for everything.
Gunner, no they're not. The fire department and the medics are, but the ambulances are privately run. So, you do have to pay for that. However, seeing as there was no service rendered, I can't imagine why they would expect to be paid.
Since the man died waiting for them, picking up the remains of the deceased is generally a city service as well.
Although, in this case, I suspect we're talking county services, but it's the same thing.
I would NEVER pay this bill. I would rather pay an attorney which I would if threatened being sent to collections. Ambulance Fees are frickin ridiculous and out of line.
I think I would move out of the district with a LARGE sum of money from a law suit I just won!!
Just call them and if that doesn't work have your attorney send them a letter.
They'll drop the charge.
It is so stupid that they sent a firetruck BEFORE they sent the ambulance, the man was not on fire!!! Too many times the firetrucks are sent our even when they are not needed! This policy only seems to slow down ambulance resonse time and needs to be revised!
I would also like to add my condolences to the family....
This is the state of our government. It takes your money in taxes tell you want it's for,while you're not looking they use it for something else. Hire some one to provide a service previously paid for with taxes then justifies it later by saying that service has been contracted out to a private company. It called fraud when the citizens do it. You see 911 has always been a joke in my town. Is this what the free market system is and will this behavior get the country out of debt? Is this transparency? The tax system is nothing less than extortion.
Ok lets set the record right. First when a person dies, the only person that can be held responsible for that person's bill is a co-signer or a power of attorney who makes the medical or financial decisions. All other bills rather it be loans, creditcards, medical bills from doctors, hospitals, etc.. must be handled through the estate if there is any money. If the person died without any money in savings, checking, etc.. and had no assets, guess what the debts have to be written off by all of the creditors. Your son, daughther, sister, brother, mother, father, etc... are not responsible for those bills unless they either co-signed or had their name on the account too. The ambulance would be billed for services to the deceased because they were the one needing medical assistance. No one else can be held legally accountable for the bill and if they try you mail it back and refuse to pay. Let them try to collect and send it to a collection agency if necessary. The collection agency can still not collect from a deceased person without assets. If there are assests of the deceased, then all bills must be paid first and then the remaining assets go through probate court. If there is a trust, then the deceased expenses are paid out of the trust and then the remaining assets distributed according to the trust. Do not be scammed into thinking and paying family members bills that are deceased. This includes auto loans, student loans, house payments, their taxes, creditcards, etc. IF your name is not on their account or you did not co-sign, then you cannot be held financially liable for any of their bills. If you need to seek legal counsel to understand the law, seek free advice from a reputable attorney that will work for free or answer your questions for a one hour charge which is still less than what the deceased owes on his or her bills. Whatever you do, don't pay it because you are not legally responsible and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
i have been told this and also I have read this in several places..
I do not think POAs are responsible from their personal funds.
In-so-far as is my understanding, what you have said is true. However, I think the fact that the bill was sent at all is ridiculous. How can someone, deceased or not, be billed for a service they never received? The ambulance that finally showed up half an hour later was from a different county, not from DC, where the gentleman lived, and his family called for assistance. If this is a bill to send a fire truck out to watch his father die, it is even more egregious. Also, while I understand that many ambulance services are privately owned, and therefore do not receive the taxes that are paid to the municipality that contracts their services, however, if a municipality is contracting services, shouldn't the price paid for said contract include actually providing those services? Otherwise, isn't the municipality merely renting ambulances/fire trucks/cop cars and personnel? If that is the case, then would it not be more financially feasible in the long run to just run it themselves? Seems like basic math to me. Maybe I'm missing something.
A certain car dealership tried this when one of my, actually half brother's father died. They tried to tell him he'd be responsible for the bill as he went to drop the car keys and the car off at the dealer. He, being a cop, pulled out his badge, identified himself as a local law enforcement officer, and informed them that what they were saying is not in keeping with the law, and fat chance they'd have collecting from him. He left the keys on their desk and told them to have a nice day...
power of attorney ends at death.
Not necessarily. Executors of the estate are given that privilege/burden.
Mom - In the case of the ambulance, Dad didn't request the ambulance. Jr. did. Therefore Jr. is responsible for the bill.
Typical cop. Thinking that having a badge makes them a lawyer.
Doesn't matter what's legal. Businesses and governments just send a bill hoping stupid pay.
Wakehead, you are 100% correct they bill everyone and those who pay most often don't know they are being double billed. This is often the case with medicare, they send a bill to the government and the patient.
Wakehead: Ka-ching!. We have a winner. Yes, the only reason to send the bill is to make money. All this talk about powers of attorney, debts of the estate, the executor's responsibilities, who called the ambulance, what if the ambulance people did their job but he died anyway, blah blah, doesn't mean a thing. If you don't like a bill, don't pay it.
This is an implied contract for services. Aside from the moral outrage -- wholly justified -- since they didn't deliver the actual services required (emergency medical services and transport), and the reason is their own delay, I don't see how in the world they can think this fee is owed.
Any attorney attempting to take this to court should be slapped with sanctions for frivolous litigation. But if it comes, just imagine the counterclaims for negligence, breach of implied contract and more. Now that has jury trial written all over it.
I suppose the ambulance service has managed somehow to wrap itself in government immunity, even though it's a private company. Classic.
That really wasn't the point.
Ridiculous. What a bunch of uncivilized, greedy pieces of ****.
He should write his congressman for help - WHAT? He has no congressman!
This is why I would NEVER live in DC - taxation without representation (or accountability).
That and all the murders
Actually, DC is represented by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. She is the
"non-voting" representative for the DC.
A DC Councilwoman is looking into the matter, according to the last couple of paragraphs of the article.
Murders are way down. Less than 100 homicides last year.
Ron Belin - White trash.
If I live in state A and work in state B, NH and Mass are classic examples, I pay taxes to Mass. but have no right to vote there. Yes I use their roads but so does every other person who just happens to drive through. Isn't that taxation w/o representation?
This happened in Washington, D.C. I'm not surprised.
Obamacare -- it's starting......there will be more and more stories like this in the coming days and months.
Oh Jesus. Really?
Yeah, I was wondering when that crap was going to be posted too. Like it never happened before, even though it has been for the past 40 years I've been watching the news.
For your information, Navy vet, stories like this have been around since the Johnson administration. It made the headlines because it's a slow news day.
Navy-vet... You win the award for ignorant statement of the day! Congratulations!
Yeah, if it only wasn't for Obamacare that ambulance would have shown up in time, saved the guys life and no one would have been billed.
Damn evil Obamacare.
This has been going on for years Einstein, where were you? Pretending to have some synaptic activity, try harder.
Tell them to go pound salt!
Stop it, Ron. You are disgusting.
Ron - go crawl under the rock you came out of. You're living proof of human trash -
Ugh, the KKK and it's racist ilk rear their ugly heads... No Ron, most of us aren't skin heads, nor do we subscribe to the "ideals" of these racists that arguably is on par with the twisted thinking of terrorists and hate groups themselves... This is the 21st century, not a return to the days of seperate but equal, or the days of Adolph Hitler...
SAND.....POUND SAND....not salt.....
It's a military thing. Most people won't understand it.
Rin Belin - ignorant hater.
Over 20 minute Delay in DC Fire Calling for an Ambulance !!!!! Someone Needs a New Job.
I would send the bill to DC Fire and I would also Demand answers for the Delay. This Delay that ended in Death. Why?????
Wow Ron. I really would like to know how you can type with your Father's d ick in your mouth.
How do you know he wouldn't have died anyway? A timely response doesn't guarantee a successful outcome. Hell, I've waited for late planes before but an still alive.
Did you just compare a late emergency vehicle to a late plane -.-
No matter what, there's always some jerk who blames everything on Obama.
Yep. The world was a Garden of Eden while the Bush family ruled the country. /end sarcasm
My condolences to the family. I hope that this is resolved soon.
Well Obama IS now under a Federal indictment and the impeachment process HAS started against him.....So yeah, it stands to reason that Obama is a fk up...Nothing new there.
Could it be because the jerk obama is always ready to blame everything on somebody else?
jp120741 - you are repeating lies or are an outright liar yourself. Larry Klayman, founder of "Freedomwatch" made this up. There was NO indictment in Florida, or in any state or federal government.
This item claiming the indictment in Florida of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for "having willfully released classified national security information" stems from a press release issued by Larry Klayman, founder and chairman of Freedom Watch. The referenced indictment is in the nature of a political publicity stunt: the President and Vice President were not indicted by any grand jury empaneled or authorized by the state of Florida or the federal government.
Fred:
Small correction, you said 'jerk', (singular), but seems the country is full of 'em judging by the first couple of replies to your post. You've got my vote.
At the very least, the pizza should have been free!
He should not have been billed. But the underlying issue here is, it WAS D.C. after all. Right behind Chicago in terms of poor response times & 911 calls.
Condolences to the family...
Don't take MY word for it Ron. See for yourself:
http://www.newser.com/story/162332/chicago-cops-cut-back-on-911-responses.html
Few bullets:
1) I'm not blaming the EMT service
2) I didn't vote for Obama
3) CRIME & lack of local budgets have led to this
Foam at the mouth much?
He should not pay them one cent.
Ron, fitting would be that you're the one who's left in a nursing home in latter life, to die as a bitter old man, who no one wants to visit because no one wants to listen to this here mouth... And I bet the nurses would loathe the idea of having to tend to ya, if this is the sort of stuff you'd end up telling those who would have to care for you in your own old age, when it happens...
There's an old saying, what goes around, comes around, and receiving your own personal karma for all of this, in your own dieing days, would be all too fitting... It's only fitting that those who should be so hateful, and bitter should themselves die alone, unloved, and facing the very thing they gave to others over the course of their life.
ron, you're the type of a$$wipe that gives white people a bad rap. i fought for the rights of all in my country. my wife is japanese and my best friend is black, so there's not a racist bone in my body.....but people like you should be found, and publicly executed. you are the reason why people can't work together....and everyone else like you because you are no better than the taliban and al-quaeda scum that i have been shooting for the last few years.
Charging $780.85 is bad enough even if they arrived on time...
He would have been better off calling a cab.
...The
underlying issue is that Mr. Ford CALLED the ambulance BUSINESS himself. On
another type of occasion he could have CALLED a pizza delivery BUSINESS.
Regardless of the personal/tragedy of his father dying, he was the one who
called the business for a service..that is the way businesses work. His other
opotion would have been to drive his father to the hospital, but if that would
have taken longer than 30 minutes, his father still would have died and then
the issue of these comments would have been why Mr. Ford did not call an
ambulance.
He called 911 and no ambulance was available. Read closer. Mr. Ford has a helluva lawsuit on his hands!! NEXT?? Call a lawyer!
i gotta ask then: I hire a maid for a service (cleaning my house before my dinner party at 5). She then arrives so late my dinner party is in-progress, wipes down a table , then tells me to pay her because she drove all the way down here. Now, do you pay her or tell her to go to h*$l? It's not like an ambulance service should be SURPRISED that someone would want prompt service. The service they offer is time-sensitive, it can't wait till it's convent, if it could then they'd be a taxi service and wouldn't get to have the flashing lights. A bill, really??? What exactly do they claim they did? I say toss them a 20 for gas money and give them as much bad press as possible so it doesn't happen to anyone else.
And if someone called a pizza delivery service, and the guys didn't deliver the pizza because they had no drivers available, should he pay? I think not... It's not reasonable to pay for service which is not rendered, call or not. He's got every right to file a lawsuite over this one, and go to collect for damages wrt their ineptness...
Yeah I agree with someone else, time to call a lawyer...
That is pretty sad when they do things like that..just as stupid as over here in Canada where they charge everyone for medical,and they do it even if you do not use the stupid system..talk about a stupid cash grab
What is wrong with you, Ron?
Ron... shut up. You are an idiot.
You've gotten attention so go away now, back to your room in mommie and daddy's basement. Oh, and have a twinkie.
Ron's response; everything and anything you can think of except being a racist..........
This gives a new meaning to 'can't beat a dead horse'.
If I ever get sick I'm calling a cab to get to the hospital. It would be cheaper and quicker.
I was told by my ambulance service that if they are called, come to you, stabilize you, and do not need to take you to the hospital (you can), they do not bill. They can only bill when they carry you somewhere. Perhaps the ambulance company took his father to hospital or mortuary for autopsy. If so, his estate would be billed. And, in point of fact, it only took the ambulance company 10-11 minutes to arrive, which is great in any major city.
Cities like DC don't fund the ambulance services. Private companies contract with the city to provide EMT and ambulance services, and therefore get no tax money to support themselves. The person who called for the ambulance incurs the bill, and there is no guarantee the ambulance will arrive in a short amount of time. The bill is sent in every case, and it is part of life if the ill person does not survive. It is unfortunate this man died before the ambulance arrived, but there is no guarantee they can save every life.
Bull pucky backtobasics. DC RUNS their own fire/ems. The even have a Fire Chief and Chief of EMS Services. Now how in the world would I know that? Gee, I live in MD (PG County to be exact) where the ambulance was dispatched from to help them. DC did this to themselves, they cut back on services to save money and the bad thing is, this very kind of scenario was put to those in charge when they were proposing cutting back on services between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am. Once again, DC does NOT contract their services out, they run their won Fire houses and EMT & ambulance services. The only ones in this area that contract out is Virginia, and you have to watch them closely.
You, the public would be pi$$ed if you knew how many ambulances are dispatched to BS calls and things, the remaining trucks that have to cover more and more square miles. Every ambulance that runs a bs call is removed from a potential real emergency. Services are usually privatized nowadays due to lawsuits so the city contracts the 911 ambulance service out. City calls usually have a response of 10 minutes or less, county has 20 or less depending on the contracts. I worked and drove a ambulance for almost 11 years, had to get away from it because I enjoy the finer things in life like electricity,cable, a decent place to live. No, I actually left it because I could make more money in a grocery store and lawn service and thats the gods truth.
The crap I ran on for "I'm sick and been this way since Fri(and its Monday morning now)." or "I dropped a tv on my toe". All the while I'm hearing another ambulance being dispatched to a real call that needed real emergency services. And don't get started on the drunks dialing 911, we had one that called just to get to the liquor store next to the hospital. And don't forget the padded fender benders, lawyers always like a client to go in ambulance to the hospital, it pads the settlement with insurance companies and makes more money for them. SO many bs calls so when a real emergency arises theres no ambulance close by. All ambulances are strategically placed to meet response time, when one is dispatched the others rotate to cover the loss of that truck. When the system gets to overload then the supervisors man trucks. Just FYI so when you call the Medicaid Bus, you might get one quick and then you might not. It depends on how abused the system gets that day.
maybe you can help answer my question. Of course NBC news is vague and happily leaves out information to stir up crap.
Paramedics were on scene with this man having difficulty breathing-he expired while they were present. The ambulance then arrived...are you telling me that when a person expires in the presence of trained medical personnel, they do not try everything in their power to revive him. I'm betting that this man WAS indeed transported to the hospital, albeit deceased, with every attempt being made to bring him back to life...that would explain him receiving a bill. Does a witnessed cardiac arrest EVER result in a person not being transported while personnel are on scene? I think the lack of details in this "journalist's" piece is just disgusting. If the patient was transported to the hospital in an attempt to save his life, of course there's a bill, but the question is, was he transported? I seriously doubt he was left dead in the home for a coroner to pick up after attempts were made to save him on scene.
My aunt worked for a very large and well-known funeral home in Philly. They got crank calls all the time to pick up bodies, so they had phone books listing all street addresses and showing all phone numbers - listed and unlisted, for that address. That way when the funeral home received a call to pick up a body at a certain address, they would check their own specialized phone books and call that address to confirm the pickup, avoiding pranksters. I don't know if ambulance companies have phone books like that, but maybe they should. As far as this case is concerned, I think a bill pushing 800 bucks is really out of line.
this is simple.....dont pay for a service you did not recieve, if they put it on your credit conntact the companies used and write a letter explaining why you dont think you should pay the bill. if they presist after that you can always wait 7 yrs with no contact to them and it will fall off automaticly.
with changes in tax/credit laws....an unpaid bill now stays on your credit report for 13 years
Who cares if an unpaid bill stays on your credit report forever - I don't know about anyone else, but my credit reports are total fiction and I have not been able to correct them. When anyone threatens to blackball my credit I tell them go ahead - join the club. Tonight I watched a show about credit reports and how nearly impossible it is to get them right (60 minutes) and it made me feel better because mine are incorrect despite my providing court certified documents for five years. Apparently 60 minutes didn't have much better luck than me.
If it were me, I would wipe my ass with the bill and then mail it back to them.
Business is business. Gotta pay it.
and bad business is bad business. gotta fire the people responsible, and provide the customers refunds for poor service