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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:
Well maybe they should pay upfront. No pay then drop dead. Welcome to Obama care very soon. The m**therf**kers who voted for that procvh Monkey will soon see how Obama care works or more correctly won't work. They weer to stupid to read the 900 page bill that was full of garbage. This will make the Auswitz selection process look trivial. This is the way the goivernment disposes legally the people they believe are unfit to live without rounding people up and putting them on transports. The fat, lazy diabetics with heart disease will be dropping dead all over the palce. If your smart start investing in Mortuarys and cemetaries.
Wow you are one paranoid and ignorant douchebag.
I am not so sure about that. Its the smokers, the overweight, all the undesirables footing the bill. Why bother?
Are personal issues no longer personal anymore? I am sorry this man's father died, but we will never know if he would have died anyway. But my point is, why do people have to make national news for things like this? I have had a lot of issues over the years with parents, bills, estates, but never have I spoken to a news organization about it--I try to keep my business my own.
I totally understand this man's pain. My mother had the same thing happen when my grandfather died from a heart attack. He lived alone in a rural area and had called for an ambulance but they got lost coming to his aid. By the time they arrived he had died. My mother had moved into the house and kept the phone number as well. Then a bill was sent and when she didn't pay it they begin to call the house in reference to the unpaid bill. It bother my mother so much that she had the phone number changed. That is a horrible way to die due to the inability to locate the patient that ACTUALLY called for services. 911 was in place and supposedly updated during this time. So why was it so hard or difficult for the EMT team to find my grandfather's address in said system and in route to his home???!!!!
Because EMTs and ambulance services are privately run organizations with their eye on the bottom dollar. Doesn't make it right, it just is how it is.
I think the bill was sent as a part of the basic process. Once someone in the ambulance billing office reviews all the facts, they should $0 out and that should be the end of it..,IMHO
An ambulance should have been available - but there's no guarantee (to anyone at anytime) that one will be.
The billing department is probably miles away from the service providers...they don't know who lived, who died / why.
So it's ~ We save your life or it's free? I don't think so...
I say tell them to f**k off and put the bad debt on his dead fathers credit report. Case closed.
I'm puzzled why would a medicare patient pay for an ambulance and a medicade patient wouldn't? We buy our Medicare, or at least I do. I pay every month and paid since 1965 into the insurance. If they aren't going to pay if I need them, what's the point?
Summertime, Our aunt is on Medicaid after spending down about $300,000 on her own care. She is 92. It is her supplemental insurance that ends up paying for any transport. Seems not right, but that is what happens.
Medicaid expects your supplemental insurance to pay any costs first then they pay on what's left. They figure if someone else will pay why should they?
actually though if the body wasn't picked up by a funeral home and picked up by an ambulance to be taken to the hospital for an autopsy..a billable service was indeed provided.
But that is not what happened...did you not read the article??? A 911 call was made and an ambulance was dispatched...but did not show up until after the man died...it had nothing to do with his passing...geez you people need to read before you post...
keep reading Ms Smart a** an ambulance was eventually dispatched.
My uncle was have Kidney issues we live in a small town so he was transferred ..about 3hrs away ..When we tried to get information they refused to tell us anything .. They gave him meds he was allergic too . He began to freak out so they tied him down .. stuck a catheter in him .. It took my sister and I almost 1 week to get him out .He has Parkinsons and has trouble speaking , eating ,walking they assumed he has dementia ,he does not . We later found out they had not fed him and had him hooked to IV's for about 5 days . About 4 days later we got a bill for $11,000 .. for torturing him.. He how has nightmares they told us he has PTS... !!! And has severe anxiety .. he will never ever be the same .He is 77yrs old he did not deserve this ..He would of died if we would not had not gotten him out ..They system stinks!!
What is problematic to me is that the bill was sent by the Washington DC EMS and not the Prince Georges EMS. The story says that the Prince Georges EMS transported the patient, after the DC EMS didn't have an ambulance available to transport the patient. Even if the patient was DOA at the time the ambulance got there, if he didn't have a DNR (Do not resusitate) on hand with the family, EMS is required by law to take him to the hospital. So, if Prince Georges EMS transported him, they should be the ones to bill the patient/insurance. DC EMS SHOULD NOT have sent a bill to ANYBODY because they didn't transport the patient. All the family has to do is get the run reports (which ALL crews have to write up) from both DC EMS and Prince Georges EMS (and if they hired an attorney, they will probably do this) to find out for sure who transported the patient.
I think the wise thing to do is just to lie down and die and not fool around with an ambulance. In our town, it's more reasonable to have someone drive you to the ER than to wait for an ambulance. We've been faced with that and have driven.
Oh, don't worry, Obamacare will fit it all!
Fit it all where?
Sorry, typo! Read: "fix it all".
Ambulances were probably busy gathering gunshot victims from gang activity. Wait, you gets the bill for that?
If you were take all of the money that our leaders of D.C. government have embezzled their would be no need for this fee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's outrageous!!
Did the EMTs at least bring a soft blanket for the guy so people wouldn't have to look at his corpse?
Soft blanket is additional $600.00.
Just a taste of what's to come.
There are just not enough people that care. I have a similar story. "Grasser Denied Interstitial Cystitis Treatment at The Valley Hospital."
"Man billed after father dies waiting for ambulance"
Your government at work for you!
he should send the ambulance people with the funeral bill.
Don't dial 911 or you could get arrested.
Why did the fire truck arrive at all ? This happens in my community as well. If there is not a fire and no one on the truck is as emt then why dispach a company in the first place?
So sorry it happened, but the ambulance was probably robbed a couple times before it got there.
King Obummer care at it's best.
Excuse me? Where i n the hell did this ambulance have to come from the moon? The price of having an ambulance come to ones home is way, way out of line. I hope this man doesn't pay them one thin dime..