In 2009, the nation’s largest city—New York—only charged Medicare $7 million for ambulance services. But Harris County (whose largest city is Houston) managed to bill the federal insurance program $62 million for private transport that same year.

 

The Houston Chronicle found that county ambulance companies made $488 million from Medicare over a six-year period.

 

No wonder there are 397 emergency medical service companies in Harris County.

 

These companies aren’t supposed to be able to bill Medicare for non-emergency calls. But they do, carrying patients who are “neither physically debilitated nor confined to a sick bed. They are not headed to, or coming from the hospital, and there is no medical emergency,” according to the newspaper. Many of the dubious rides are given to mentally ill patients being brought to therapy sessions, a client group that is actually rarely in need of ambulance services.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Private Ambulances Take Medicare, Taxpayers for a Ride (by Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle)