Emergency vs. Rescue?

[CN Spots]

A friend and I were discussing an ambulance fee he paid after his wife wrecked in front of the ER and they drove out 100 yards to pick her up. I think it was around $300. She was fine but anyway, we started talking about the medivac choppers that pick you up when things get really bad and it escalated into Coast Guard ships or helicopters coming to your rescue when your boat sinks in a storm. We were wondering if you got a bill from the Navy or Coast Guard (or any other department) if they had to rescue you?

I consider myself fortunate that I've never had to find out.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Well.... up here in Vermont we have allot od search and rescues during the Winter season.

We have many "adventurous" people skiing who ignore the trail signs and warnings........ they ultimately ski off onto the wrong side of the mountain and get lost. Since it snows so much....tracks vanish quickly and in the Winter ....... people do not have any real sense of direction. They figure if they go downhill they will be okay......wrong!

There has been legislation to charge people for rescues if they ignored the signs and did a dumb thing.

 

[jimr]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I can tell ya Air-Evac lifeteam charge my insurance company $18360 to transport my son from our local hospital to a tulsa hoapital my part was about 3600.

 

[dockwrecker]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I had to be LifeFlighted off a mountain for a back injury skiing years ago, the bill was $10,800, my ins. paid 90%. My mother had a stroke recently and her 8 minute ride to the hospital with EMT's was $1850, her ins. paid 80%. It seems like many ins. co's. are decreasing coverage for ambulance services.

 

[12vMan]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I off-road a lot, so the need for medical transportation can be right around the corner. One of the groups I belong to provides a discount for air ambulance transportation through Reach for Life at $45/yr for the whole family. Seems like cheap insurance.

My wife broke her neck and both arms in a dirt bike accident many years ago before we were married (or had insurance) while we were back in the Calico mining hills. She had to be air lifted out and luckily a group came by with one of the riders being a dispatcher for the CHP. He was able to get a CHP chopper in there at no cost, otherwise it would have been a nightmare bill of probably $15-20,000 or so I would guess.
Everything was such a blur I never got the guy's name or number. Thank you again if you're out there!

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

My cousins mother got sick. Called an ambulance, and they drove her to the hospital. About 2 miles non emergent.

A few weeks later, the bill was about 2000 dollars.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Ambulances and air evacuations/transports are billable. Ambulance fees very as per the medical classification ... BLS or ALS (Basic Life Support or Advanced Life Support). Also pay for supplies used and miles transported on top of the basic fee.

Rescues may or may not be billable, depending on the policies of the rescue organization. Our fire depart could, by law, charge for rescues, and we have kicked around the idea of charging for people who reside out of our coverage area. However we have decided not to charge for our services. There are times when it is a true jerk who choses to do something stupid and then we have to risk life and time to bail them out of a situation that they should have easily avoided ... these we wish we could charge for, but we do not.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I dont know what supplies they used.

She was in the later stages of cancer, fell and broke her hip.. He called the care worker (she was on her way over to do the evening check) and she called the ambulance. 15 minutes later they showed up.. Hospital is 2 minutes away, and fire department (where the ambulances are kept) is about 5 minutes. Still took them a while to get there, this is a full time fire ambul station. Don't know why, could be a number of reasons, busy night, cleaning the rig.. Don't know.

I assuming 2000 is probably inline or cheap compared to others that may have been in a similar situation. But when you look at money these days, thats a lot of money.

 

[choochooharley]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Last winter or the winter before a few ice fishermen on lake erie failed to follow the warnings and I think it was 8 ended up floating off in the lake....I remember the coast guard officer that was interviewed and they said they do not charge for ordinary rescues but if it is blatent disregard they can choose to send you a bill....that was the same story from the county that assisted with the rescue...I do not know if any one was ever billed but if they were I can only imagine what the bill would be.....YIKEs....county ice rescue team $5000......Coast Guard Ice Breaker $10000.....Coast Guard Helo Priceless......

 

[aspeck]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I dont know what supplies they used.

She was in the later stages of cancer, fell and broke her hip..

Can't say about the time, but these conditions tell me that ALS would be used because of medication to control the pain. With that said, the cost would be in line with industry standards.

 

[rbh]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

I volunteered SAR's for the local area for a few years.
No money to be made as this was volunteering, like firefighters in the rural departments.
But we could recover our fuel costs, but this is not that important as the point was that someone was in need of assistance.

 

[bassman284]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Yeah, 2-2.5 G for ground ambulance, 15-20 G for chopper, depending on jurisdiction.

Friend of mine is CG Auxiliarly on Lake Champlaign in Detroit. Told me about ice fishermen going out on bad ice and havng a floe break off. CG comes to pick them up and they're pissed because CG won't pick up the snowmobiles and ice shacks.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Yeah, 2-2.5 G for ground ambulance, 15-20 G for chopper, depending on jurisdiction.

Friend of mine is CG Auxiliarly on Lake Champlaign in Detroit. Told me about ice fishermen going out on bad ice and havng a floe break off. CG comes to pick them up and they're pissed because CG won't pick up the snowmobiles and ice shacks.

I consider vehicles and shanty retrieval a recovery not a rescue. It is usually the ones who "risk" it when the ice is so-so who get trapped.

I am a believer in charing double for a search/rescue as a result of a dumb action (hear that snow skier's )

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

The coast guard here never charge for rescue whether by boat or air lifted. Last week a man overboard alert sent a coast guard jet plane, helicopter and three vessels to try and locate the person. The coast guard use to respond to all commercial and recreational distress calls, now if recreational and you are not sinking they have you call a tow boat company to tow you in to port.

If our city fire department rescue squard comes to your rescue they only charge you if you have insurance, if not it is a free ride. If the private ambalence service gets to you, you pay either through insurance or out of pocket.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

20 years ago I was in a motorcycle road race here in Colorado, well things went bad. Anyway I got an ambulance ride to the mountain hospital, then another to the local airport, placed on an airambulance airplane to Denver then a helicopter to the hospital where I spent the next 6 days in a coma, broken pelvis, fractured skull, 6 broken ribs and broken thumb. If memory serves me right just transportation fees cost the insurance company(Kaiser Perm.) $33,000. The funny part is I came out of the Coma on friday and they kicked me out of the hospital Saturday morning! Total bill was around $145,000 of which I paid about $1500 copay. I have the helmet that saved my life to this day. Did I mention I don't remember any of it?

 

[CN Spots]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Well, it appears that the answer was as complicated as I suspected.

Thanks for the replys. Good info.

 

[eastont]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Reading these posts makes me glad I live in Canada, where health care is government run.

I had a heart attack 2 years ago and called 911, the ambulance took me from my home to the hospital in town a distance of about 10 miles. Then they determined I had to go to another hospital 60 miles away, by ambulance.
The cost to me was $45 for both trips.

 

[choochooharley]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Ok now here come the political rants......But east you paid more than $45 for it you just dont know it and good thing it was an emergency and you didnt have to go on a waiting list....keep the government out as much as we possibly can

 

[DECK SWABBER 58]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

Reading these posts makes me glad I live in Canada, where health care is government run.

I had a heart attack 2 years ago and called 911, the ambulance took me from my home to the hospital in town a distance of about 10 miles. Then they determined I had to go to another hospital 60 miles away, by ambulance.
The cost to me was $45 for both trips.

Ok now here come the political rants......But east you paid more than $45 for it you just dont know it and good thing it was an emergency and you didnt have to go on a waiting list....keep the government out as much as we possibly can

Well...., My parents who were snow birds were down in Florida, Mom who already had copd came down with an accute case of pneumonia and could not fly back on a commercial airliner. We had to hire a medical air transport plane to get her home. Medicare which she had paid into all her life would not pay the $15,000 bill.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Emergency vs. Rescue?

To the best of my knowledge, the Coast Guard does not charge for SAR operations in any situation. That's probably a good thing too, because aside from simple small boat operations, the bill would be huge in most circumstances.

I once flew a SAR out of San Francisco in an H model C130. We had all four mains full, the two internal wing aux tanks full, the external pylon tanks full and a 12,000 lb capacity cargo bay internal tank full, so that we could fly for about 14 hours continuously. We had to take two complete crews, because that amount of flight time exceeded allowable duty time limitations.

We were also not the only aircraft involved. There was another Coast Guard C130 out of Barbers Point, HI and a Navy P3 Orion involved. Total fuel for the three aircraft was about 25,000 gallons a day. Add maintenance reserves for 12 turboprop engines and three airframes, plus crew costs and you have a pretty astonomical bill.

In that case, however, there was no one who could have been billed anyway. The sailboat that we were looking for was never found and the crew was never heard from again.


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